By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Fox Corp (NASDAQ:FOXA) shares rose more than 3% in Wednesday’s trading, reacting positively to Wells Fargo 's (NYSE:WFC)’s upgrade of the stock to ‘overweight’.
Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall says the stock could benefit from Fox’s presence in sports gambling, pointing out investments such as Credible Labs and Fox Bet as proof of the Murdoch company pivoting toward sports betting.
Sports gambling is a rapidly-emerging opportunity in the U.S. as more and more states lift restrictions to increase their tax collections.
Cahall has raised his target for the stock to $47, an upside of almost 24% from its current level of $37.86.
He believes the real opportunity would lie in Fox and London-listed Flutter (OTC:PDYPY) building a new company longer term by combining FanDuel U.S. and Fox's non-news network assets.
Fox and Flutter are currently locked in a legal battle over the value of former’s stake in FanDuel.
Flutter, which merged its U.S. business with FanDuel three years ago, raised its stake in the sports betting firm in December, valuing it at $11.2 billion.
Fox, which next month can exercise its option to buy an 18.6% stake in FanDuel, wants to do so at the same price Flutter paid last year, an idea that the Flutter finds unacceptable.