The stock market performed well last week, so it's perhaps not such a big surprise to see major market benchmarks pull back somewhat on Monday morning. Fears of inflation still persist among market participants, and it's unclear whether economic data supports the robust recovery that many have anticipated or whether a more sluggish trajectory back to pre-pandemic levels will keep the Federal Reserve from having to take aggressive action. As of 10:45 a.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.06%) was down 65 points to 34,691. The S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.48%) eased lower by 10 points to 4,220, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 0.91%) dropped just 2 points to 13,812.
Yet even as the rest of the market languished, a couple of stocks in the connected television space did quite well. fuboTV (FUBO +0.00%) has benefited from favorable trends in its TV platform business and the popularity of its stock, while Magnite's (MGNI 2.85%) increasing focus on connected TV as a key distribution channel for its programmatic advertising platform has many looking for a big payoff.
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A steady recovery for fuboTV
Shares of fuboTV were up nearly 10% on Monday morning. The move follows a nice rise over the last week that extended the connected TV platform provider's gains over the past month to roughly 80%.
Investors in fuboTV have had to endure a tough 2021, as the stock pulled back dramatically from its highs in December. Even with all the gains fuboTV has seen lately, its stock still fetches barely half what it did less than six months ago.
However, fuboTV is starting to see some big business wins. Revenue in the first quarter more than doubled from year-ago levels, and even though the winter months are typically a lull for fuboTV's popular sports programming, the service managed to pull in more new subscribers than it lost to churn compared to three months earlier.
The big question for fuboTV is whether it can continue to ride the wave of interest in sports programming to continue delivering comprehensive coverage to avid fans. With strategic moves to try to capitalize on fantasy sports and online sportsbooks, fuboTV has high potential for big returns despite having above-average risk as well.
Magnite lights up
Meanwhile, shares of Magnite were up about 11%. The immediate cause of the move was a favorable view from Wall Street analysts, but the programmatic advertising business also has plenty of long-term potential.
Analysts at Truist had good things to say about Magnite. The analysts boosted their rating on the stock from hold to buy and repeated their $37-per-share price target on the stock. The primary argument the analysts made is that with Magnite's stock price having fallen dramatically over the past few months, Magnite's programmatic advertising business now offers a more favorable balance between risk and reward.
In particular, Truist likes what Magnite has done in acquiring connected TV and video ad specialist SpotX. Bringing on SpotX helped to bolster Magnite's already considerable presence in connected TV, which has been one of the company's fastest-growing segments.
With advertising activity overall starting to pick back up and with greater interest in connected TV, Magnite is making a big bet on current trends continuing. If they do, however, then Magnite shareholders could potentially see the stock price go back to challenge its all-time highs, which were roughly double where the shares trade today.
