Netflix sues 'Unofficial Bridgerton Musical' creators, MGM stock rises, CVS boosted by sales

Yahoo Finance Live checks out several of today's trending stocks, including Netflix's motion to sue creators over infringement and CVS' Q2 earnings beat.

Video transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: All right, time now for our Triple Play. All of us picking a stock in the news and on the move. Josh Schafer filling in for Rachelle today. My play is Netflix. The streamer suing the team behind the unofficial "Bridgerton" musical for infringement.

Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear put on a for-profit, sold-out show Friday at the Kennedy Center with ticket prices up to 150 bucks without Netflix's permission. The Grammy-winning duo even promoted branded merchandise. And they have plans for a future performance in London. Barlow and Bear gained fame for their "Bridgerton"-themed TikToks and even beat out Andrew Lloyd Webber for Best Musical themed album.

In a statement, Netflix says they support fan-generated content, but Barlow and Bear have taken this many steps further, seeking to create multiple revenue streams for themselves without formal permission to utilize the "Bridgerton" intellectual property. While that is a stunning case, Netflix shares down more than 60% this year. They are up to date, if you will, on this news, 2 and 1/2%. Josh, a bit staggering that it got this far.

JOSH SCHAFER: Dave, what my main takeaway from this is, is, someone else is finding ways to find different revenue streams perhaps better than Netflix is.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah.

DAVE BRIGGS: Oh.

JOSH SCHAFER: Why doesn't Netflix have a TikTok where they're creating this kind of content? Why isn't Netflix making musicals? We're talking about a company that wants to bring in ads to get new revenue. Sure, that's a great way to get--

DAVE BRIGGS: Create events.

JOSH SCHAFER: That's a great way to get revenue, but why not do something else?

SEANA SMITH: And I'm also surprised that it took this long for Netflix to step in because we've been talking about for a while now how popular this TikTok musical was.

DAVE BRIGGS: It won a Grammy.

SEANA SMITH: Netflix was initially supporting it. They won a Grammy. And so I'm surprised it actually got to this point. Also surprised-- we were talking about it during the break-- that the women actually thought that they were going to get away with it. I think that's the whole thing here. Like, why-- did you not--

DAVE BRIGGS: They did for a while.

SEANA SMITH: I don't know.

JOSH SCHAFER: How do you win a Grammy and get away with that, right?

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, I don't know. It's a little surprising.

DAVE BRIGGS: Kennedy Center and merchandise.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah.

DAVE BRIGGS: Two steps too far.

JOSH SCHAFER: Right, but another company with multiple revenue streams, my play today is MGM Resorts International, and more broadly, the gambling sector. It's gambling earnings week. MGM is set to report its second quarter earnings after the bell, which we'll bring to you live here. But you can see MGM shares up about almost 5% headed into that as earnings, as investors anticipate a $3 billion revenue from the casino chain.

Now, one thing I'm going to be watching for here, though, guys, is investors-- in that investors call is what they say about digital gaming. Last night, Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg said his company cut back advertising spend by hundreds of millions of dollars. And you can see shares were up slightly for Caesars, but really, what stuck out to me about that is, he reiterated the profitability goal by the end of 2023.

He said they're now really feeling confident in that. We always talk about these sports gambling companies and how much they spend on advertising. Caesars cutting back significantly, keeping a fair amount of share of market share, too. If that's sticky, then maybe we finally see one of these companies turn a profit, Seana.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, it's going to be interesting. I mean, the analysts were pretty positive on the results that we did get from Caesars. Jefferies specifically talked about that pullback in digital spend in their note that was out this morning, saying that should be a positive for the company. So it looks like, at least, the Street analysts think that these companies are moving in the right direction, a couple of price target hikes here from Barclays, Truist, JP Morgan, just to name a few, hiking their price targets on Caesars. But interesting, though, to see what we get out from MGM after the bell today.

DAVE BRIGGS: I'm watching this space well beyond this year into next year because it looks like FanDuel and DraftKings both get into the television market, 24 hours. That's going to be a huge evolution. Maybe not dramatic impact on the shares, but certainly, a game changer in the industry.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, it certainly will be. All right, well, my play today is CVS, raising its full year forecast after topping second quarter expectations. Results driven by an 8% jump in same store sales. In a note this morning, JP Morgan wrote that sales were boosted by a jump in prescription sales and demand for COVID-19 tests, as well as a longer cold and flu season relative to what we saw last year.

More people are also shopping in CVS stores. They saw an increase in number of trips and also in the number of products that people were buying in this store during the quarter. You can see shares moving to the upside today and one of the big gainers in today's market action, Dave.

DAVE BRIGGS: I'm really watching there is them entering or wanting to enter the primary care space, which, quite frankly, anyone who knows has tried to see a primary care doctor, it's a debacle out there in this country. Them entering the space would really change things. Now, they don't have doctor's offices. It's either going to require a purchase or a merger. But they want to offer doctor's appointments, 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM on weekends. And the availability could really help this country. We--