Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings
CCO on NYSE. Clear Channel Outdoor sells billboard, street and airport advertising space to advertisers. Market value $1.2bn.
Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.
Should I look at this?
Not a fit for our list right now
Why it could be worth it
See Media & telecom stocks that passed both tests
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $6.90 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 19.4 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
The filings do not give us enough to work this out.
Quality score: 34 of 100. Price score: 53 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$2.40 a share, 89% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $1.27 to $2.44.
Pays no dividend
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
Spare cash swings from quarter to quarter here: $84 million in the past 12 months, $32 million in the year to December 2025.
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $1.8bn | $1.4bn | $1.4bn | $1.5bn | $1.6bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 3.3% | 18.5% | 15.1% | 18.5% | 19.4% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.48bn | 0.48bn | 0.49bn | 0.50bn | 0.51bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive1 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
- Financial strength (Piotroski)6 of 7 checks we could run
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- DebtUnknown
- Revenue growth, five yearsShrinking, 2.9% a year
- Buying back its own sharesNo, 7% more shares since 2021
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $438 million last quarter, up 9% on a year ago.
- A loss of $5 million, after a profit of $10 million a year ago.
- It keeps 19 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, about the same as a year earlier.
- Spare cash over the past 12 months: $84 million. A year earlier it spent $47 million more than it brought in.
- 2% more shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit less of the company.
- Debt is $4.9 billion more than cash, about the same as a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $375m |
| December 2024 | $427m |
| March 2025 | $334m |
| June 2025 | $403m |
| September 2025 | $406m |
| December 2025 | $462m |
| March 2026 | $374m |
| June 2026 | $438m |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | -$33m |
| December 2024 | -$18m |
| March 2025 | $63m |
| June 2025 | $10m |
| September 2025 | -$60m |
| December 2025 | $8m |
| March 2026 | -$49m |
| June 2026 | -$5m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- n/a
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 26 February 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 4 November 2026
Who owns it
2 long-term investors we follow own it, down from 3 last quarter. 196 funds in all.
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| GAMCO InvestorsMario Gabelli | $21m | 0.2% | Cut |
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $35,039 | <0.1% | Cut |
Sold out this quarter
- Polen CapitalDan DavidowitzSold out
Largest holders overall
- Allianz Asset Management GmbH$253m
- Ares Management$100m
- BlackRock$74mAdded
- FIL$49mAdded
- JPMorgan Chase$49mAdded
- Syquant Capital SAS$41mNew
- Vanguard Capital Management$31mAdded
- Glazer Capital$30mAdded
- Nexpoint Asset Management, L.P.$26mAdded
- Geode Capital Management$25mAdded
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
4 investors own more than 5%.
- Pacific Investment Management Company LLC21.1%Since 9 February 2026
What they said
Item 4 of the Original Schedule 13D is hereby amended to add the following: On February 9, 2026, the Issuer, Madison Parent Inc. ("Parent") and Madison Merger Sub Inc. ("Merger Sub") entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the "Merger Agreement"), pursuant to which at…
Read the filing - Arturo R. MorenoInsider or founder13.6%+0.8 ptsSince 9 February 2026
What they said
Item 4 of the Original Schedule 13D is hereby supplemented as follows: On February 9, 2026, the Issuer entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the "Merger Agreement") with Madison Parent Inc., a Delaware corporation ("Parent"), and Madison Merger Sub Inc., a Delaware…
Read the filing - Ares Management LLCPassive investorat least 8.3%0.0 pts(filed with 15 related holders)Since 9 February 2026
What they said
Item 4 of this Schedule 13D is hereby amended and supplemented by the following. SUPPORT AGREEMENT On February 9, 2026, the Issuer entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the "Merger Agreement") with Madison Parent Inc., a Delaware corporation ("Parent"), and Madison…
Read the filing - BlackRock, Inc.Passive investor5.9%+4.6 ptsSince 30 June 2026
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 30 September 2025
- Sold down below 5%Since 9 June 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
Pacific Investment Management Company LLC | 21.1% | 9 February 2026 | What they saidItem 4 of the Original Schedule 13D is hereby amended to add the following: On February 9, 2026, the Issuer, Madison Parent Inc. ("Parent") and Madison Merger Sub Inc. ("Merger Sub") entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the "Merger Agreement"), pursuant to which at… Read the filing |
Arturo R. Moreno Insider or founder | 13.6%+0.8 pts | 9 February 2026 | What they saidItem 4 of the Original Schedule 13D is hereby supplemented as follows: On February 9, 2026, the Issuer entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the "Merger Agreement") with Madison Parent Inc., a Delaware corporation ("Parent"), and Madison Merger Sub Inc., a Delaware… Read the filing |
Ares Management LLC Passive investor | at least 8.3%0.0 pts (filed with 15 related holders) | 9 February 2026 | What they saidItem 4 of this Schedule 13D is hereby amended and supplemented by the following. SUPPORT AGREEMENT On February 9, 2026, the Issuer entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the "Merger Agreement") with Madison Parent Inc., a Delaware corporation ("Parent"), and Madison… Read the filing |
BlackRock, Inc. Passive investor | 5.9%+4.6 pts | 30 June 2026 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 30 September 2025 | |
Sold down below 5% | 9 June 2026 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 1 sold $63m.
- Legion Partners, L.P. IIDirectorSold
- Date
- 15 June 2026
- Shares
- 2,804,171
- Price
- $2.40
- Value
- $7m
- Legion Partners Special Opportunities, L.P. XVIDirectorSold
- Date
- 9 June 2026
- Shares
- 23,435,796
- Price
- $2.40
- Value
- $56m
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 June 2026 | Legion Partners, L.P. II Director | Sold | 2,804,171 | $2.40 | $7m |
| 9 June 2026 | Legion Partners Special Opportunities, L.P. XVI Director | Sold | 23,435,796 | $2.40 | $56m |
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 26 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 5 Aug 2026 and 8 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
- Sales have shrunk: 2.9% a year.
- It owes more than it owns on paper (negative equity). Often that's from borrowing to buy back shares.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.