Dish Network stock drops on UBS downgrade, cybersecurity concerns

The Yahoo Finance Live team reviews the catalysts for a stock decline of Dish Network.

Video transcript

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DAVE BRIGGS: All right, it's time now for Triple Play, three stocks we're watching in the final 30 minutes of trading-- Dish Network, Rivian, and Meta. We'll start things off with my play, which is Dish Network. Shares slumping to close the week on a downgrade from UBS. Analyst John Hodulik cutting his rating to neutral from buy, slashing his price target, though, to 10 bucks from 27. Hodulik writing in a note, quote, "We now factor higher wireless dilution amid Dish's entry into postpaid wireless"-- that's later this year.

The analyst also citing a cybersecurity incident, which resulted in data being extracted, impacted call centers and online channels for not just a couple of days-- for several weeks. In fact, reports circulated that customers spent hours and hours on hold and were even warned of a 10 to 15-hour wait time, again, weeks after the cyber attack took place.

Let's check out the stock, how far it's fallen today. It's been a rough year as well for Dish Network. Falling on the year, falling in the last 12 months, 3/4 of their market cap wiped out. It is a rough time-- double downgrade from Bank of America. It feels like a very rough outlook. I can't imagine what the catalyst could be for Dish.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: I mean, rough days for Dish. I mean, all the satellite broadcasters, right? It's just really rough times. You know, I think Charlie Ergen, the CEO, the wily Charlie Ergen talking about retransmission fee is going to go down, down, down. That's the trend. He's been angling for a DirecTV merger, Dish and DirecTV merger. That's what he wants. So we'll see if that happens. But that's rough times. A 10 to 15-hour wait time-- what?

DAVE BRIGGS: 10 to 15 hours, weeks after the cyber attack took place. And yes, slowing subscriber growth. It feels like an industry turnaround just isn't possible at this point, given all the trends we're seeing in the media environment.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah, maybe they focus more on the internet broadcast stuff. So we'll see.