Investors hoping to get in early on a media disruptor are asking what the BuzzFeed stock price is, but they'll have to wait a bit before the company goes public.
According to Fortune, the BuzzFeed IPO could be set at some point in 2018. That means there won't be a BuzzFeed stock price until the company goes public.
However, with only three months left in 2017, the BuzzFeed public offering could be just around the corner.
While we wait for BuzzFeed to announce an official IPO date, we wanted to make sure Money Morning readers know the most important details about the media company, including whether it's worth buying...
What Is BuzzFeed?
BuzzFeed is a media company based in New York City. It offers readers news, quizzes, celebrity gossip, and recipes. According to BuzzFeed's website, it has 200 million unique monthly visitors.
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BuzzFeed designs its diverse content to elicit reader engagement and to encourage readers to share its content on social media.
For example, two of its top trending stories on July 5 were "NPR Tweeted the Declaration of Independence and Some Trump Supporters Were Offended," and "22 Outrageously Hipster Foods That Must Be Stopped." These headlines ignite readers' curiosity and entice them to click through to the site.
Because BuzzFeed is a private company, it hasn't released financial reports, so we don't know exactly how much money they make. However, according to a 2016 CNBC report, BuzzFeed's revenue in 2015 hit approximately $170 million.
CNBC projected the media company would hit $250 million in revenue in 2016.
As a comparison, The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) reported $209 million just in digital ad revenue for 2016.
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Now that you know BuzzFeed's background, you might be wondering: Should I buy BuzzFeed stock?
Here's our answer, plus a special profit opportunity...
Should I Buy BuzzFeed Stock?
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We typically don't recommend investing in IPOs, but that doesn't mean you can't profit from BuzzFeed right now.
You see, not only do insiders make most of the money from IPOs, but IPOs are known for volatile price swings during their first few months of trading.
The hype surrounding an IPO can push initial share prices up too high or send the prices plummeting.
Look at how dramatically Snapchat's stock price moved after its IPO in March. After just three days as a publicly traded company, the Snapchat stock price reached an all-time, intraday high of $28.25 on March 6. On Sept. 28, the Snapchat stock price closed at $14.12, a 50% drop since its all-time high price.
The BuzzFeed stock price could be volatile in its first few months of trading, too.
But we've found a way to profit from BuzzFeed without buying in during the IPO process.
NBCUniversal made a $200 million investment in BuzzFeed in 2015 and now has a total stake of $400 million in BuzzFeed.
This has created a backdoor investment opportunity for retail investors...
Instead of investing directly in BuzzFeed, our readers can buy shares of Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA), the owner of NBCUniversal.
From the company's cable networks to high-speed Internet services, Comcast has large and diverse revenue sources. For Q2 2017, Comcast reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.52 on $21.17 billion in revenue, crushing EPS expectations of $0.48.
Comcast also beat revenue expectations, as analysts had expected $20.86 billion.
And even in the age of cord-cutting (customers cancelling their cable TV subscriptions), CMCSA was able to increase its cable business revenue by 5.9% in Q1, to $2.2 billion. It also saw a massive sales increase of $1.98 billion, or 43.2%, from the same time last year thanks to movies such as "Fifty Shades Darker" and "Get Out."
These diverse, billion-dollar revenue sources make CMCSA far safer, and potentially more profitable, than just owning BuzzFeed stock directly. Plus, you'll still get exposure to BuzzFeed's disruptive potential.
If you invest in BuzzFeed and the stock price is volatile, you could face losses as steep as 39% or more, like current Snapchat shareholders. But by owning Comcast stock, you can make a profit no matter what happens to BuzzFeed.
If BuzzFeed doubles or triples its valuation, it means Comcast will make even more money. If it doesn't, Comcast has plenty of other revenue streams that will continue to grow, boosting its stock price.
Comcast's diverse revenue stream is why analysts are bullish on the CMCSA stock price. According to FactSet, 94% of the analysts who cover CMCSA stock rate it as a "Buy." That's up 3% from the 91% who rated Comcast stock a "Buy" in July.
In fact, financial service company Raymond James is so bullish on CMCSA stock that it has a one-year price target of $50.00. From yesterday's closing price of $38.53, that's a potential profit of 29.76%.
Comcast also pays shareholders a dividend of $0.16 for a yield of 1.64%. Through dividend reinvestment programs (DRIPs), investors can grow their profits even more.
The Bottom Line: BuzzFeed could go public at some point in 2018. But like Snapchat, the BuzzFeed stock price could have volatile swings in the first few months of trading. Comcast is a safer way to still own a piece of BuzzFeed without directly owning BuzzFeed stock. The Comcast stock price is expected to climb 29.76%, and shareholders receive a dividend of $0.16 for a yield of 1.64%.
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