Nielsen (NLSN) Renews Ties With Raycom, Boosts Clientele

Nielsen Holdings Plc (NYSE:NLSN) is firing on all cylinders to bolster presence in the television ratings world on the back of its robust services.

Recently, the company witnessed contract renewal by its client, Raycom Media. The renewal is testament to reliability and capability of Nielsen’s services.

Per the renewed agreement, Raycom will continue with adoption of Nielsen’s local television ratings service within its LPM, SET and Code Reader markets.

Deal Rationale

The latest deal seems to be a win-win situation for both the companies.

Notably, Raycom is leveraging the power of Nielsen’s television ratings for the purpose of audience measurement across many stations like WBTV-Charlotte, WBRC-Birmingham, WXIX-Cincinnati, WMC-Memphis, WVUE-New Orleans, WFLX-West Palm Beach, to name a few.

Along with the TV station measurement service, Nielsen is providing insight tools – Arianna, NLTV, Ad Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Scarborough-Local which will aid Raycom in gauging consumer behavior better.

Meanwhile, Nielsen strengthens its clientele with the deal. Moreover, the agreement accelerates the adoption rate of its local TV rating services.

Coming to the price performance, shares of Nielsen have lost approximately 34.2% in the past year, compared with the industry’s decline of 1.4%.

However, expanding footprint in the television industry with the help of strengthening relationship with clients is likely to help the stock recover in the long haul.

Growing Clientele: A Key Catalyst

Strong service portfolio of the company continues to expand its client base which remains a key growth driver.

The company recently renewed its agreement with Hearst Television, per which the latter will utilize the Nielsen’s ratings for local and national television and radio stations across its 26 local markets, syndicated programming and two Baltimore radio stations.

Further, MBuy renewed agreement for Nielsen’s local and national TV measurement in the end of 2017.

The above-mentioned deals along with the one with Raycom provide strong evidences for Nielsen’s growing momentum among the broadcasting companies and media channel partners.

This bodes well for the well-performing Watch segment of the company which continues to contribute the most to the total revenues (53% of the third-quarter revenues) and in turn drive the top line.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Currently, Nielsen carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A few better-ranked stocks that can be considered in the broader technology sector are Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) , Acacia Communications (NASDAQ:ACIA) and ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ:ACIW) . All the three stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Long-term earnings growth rate for Akamai Technologies, Acacia Communications and ACI Worldwide is currently pegged at 14.67%, 12.41% and 12%, respectively.

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