5 Growth Levers Seen For CBS

Citi issued a report on CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS) as the company sees multiple opportunities for the television provider to grow in the short term. Citi rates CBS as a Buy and raised its price target from $60 to $72.

Jason Bazinet and Robert Koryl wrote, "The TV ecosystem is shifting rapidly. New over-the-top premium services like HBO and Showtime are poised to hit the market. Free-to-air over-the-top services like CBS All Access are in the market today. Pay TV firms are keen to secure out-of home rights to more effectively match the functionality of web-based video offers that implicitly offer out-of-home access. And finally, there are new entrants looking to enter the pay TV market...For the Street's low growth profile to be correct, we have to assume CBS has few growth levers. We think this is unlikely."

Citi sees five potential growth drivers for CBS that may drive the stock higher:

• 1. CBS has announced that it intends to launch Showtime Anytime in 2015.
• 2. CBS' CEO recently suggested CBS All Access has more than 100,000 subscribers since the October 2014 launch, which should equal 400,000 subscriptions per year.
• 3. Re-transmission fees could exceed $2 billion by 2020.
• 4. New entrants entering the streaming TV market who would desire CBS's programs.
• 5. CBS can sell digital out-of-home rights to smaller pay TV providers.

Shares of CBS closed Thursday at $62.63.