News Corporation NWSA reported first-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings of 21 cents per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 31.25% and increased 31.25% year over year.

NWSA’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 24.7%.

Find the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.

Revenues of $2.58 billion increased 3.1% year over year and beat the consensus mark by 0.63%. The improvement was driven by growth in the Digital Real Estate Services, Book Publishing and Dow Jones segments.
 

News Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

News Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | News Corporation Quote

Following first-quarter earnings, NWSA shares were up 0.1% in after-hours trading. NWSA  shares have gained 18.8% year to date (YTD), outperforming the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector’s return of 27.6%.

NWSA’s Quarterly Details

Adjusted revenues (which exclude the impact of foreign currency, acquisitions and divestitures) increased 2% year over year.

Total EBITDA increased 14% to $415 million, primarily due to strong contributions from REA Group within the Digital Real Estate Services segment. The increase was partly offset by higher costs at the Subscription Video Services, driven by Hubbl product.

NWSA’s Segment Details

Digital Real Estate Services

Revenues in the Digital Real Estate Services segment increased 13% to $457 million, driven by strong performance at REA Group. Adjusted revenues and adjusted Segment EBITDA increased 11% and 13%, respectively.

Revenues in Move fell 1% to $140 million, mainly due to lower real estate revenues. Representing 77% of total Move revenues, real estate revenues decreased 4% year over year, owing to the continued impact of the macroeconomic environment on the housing market, including higher mortgage rates, which has led to lower lead and transaction volumes.

Based on Move’s internal data, average monthly unique users of Realtor.com’s web and mobile sites grew 2% year over year at 77 million. Lead volume was down 1% year over year.

Revenues at REA Group rose 22% to $318 million, driven by higher Australian residential revenues due to price increases, improved depth penetration, a surge in national listings, a 3% positive impact from foreign currency fluctuations and increased revenue from REA India. 

Australian national residential buy listing volumes in the reported quarter increased 7% year over year, with listings in Sydney and Melbourne up 11% and 9%, respectively.

Subscription Video Services

The Subscription Video Services segment’s revenues were $501 million, up 3% year over year, primarily attributed to higher revenues from Kayo and BINGE from increases in both volume and pricing and a 2% favorable impact from foreign currency fluctuation, mostly offset by the impact of fewer residential broadcast subscribers. Adjusted revenues of $490 million were up 1% year over year.

Foxtel Group streaming subscription revenues represented approximately 34% of total circulation and subscription revenues in the fiscal first quarter compared with 30% in the prior-year quarter. 

Broadcast subscriber churn in the quarter was 11% compared with 11.4% in the prior-year quarter, driven by a recent price and packaging simplification. Broadcast ARPU increased 4% year over year to A$89 (US$60).

Dow Jones

Revenues at the Dow Jones segment increased 3% year over year to $552 million, driven by an increase in professional information business and higher content licensing revenues. Digital revenues at Dow Jones in the fiscal first quarter represented 82% of total revenues compared with 81% in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted revenues rose 2%.

Circulation and subscription revenues rose 5%, primarily driven by an 8% increase in professional information business revenues, led by 16% growth in Risk & Compliance revenues to $81 million and a jump of 11% in Dow Jones Energy revenues to $68 million. 

Circulation revenues inched up 1% year over year due to the continued growth in digital-only subscriptions but was offset by lower print volume. Digital circulation revenues accounted for 72% of circulation revenues for the quarter compared with 70% in the year-ago quarter.

Advertising revenues decreased 7%, primarily due to a 5% decline in digital advertising revenues and a 10% decline in print advertising revenues. Digital advertising accounted for 67% of total advertising revenues compared to 66% in the prior-year quarter.

During the fiscal first quarter, total average subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products were above 5.9 million, representing an 11% increase compared with the year-ago quarter. Digital-only subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products grew 15%.

Total subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal grew 7% year over year to nearly 4.3 million average subscriptions in the quarter. Digital-only subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal grew 10% to more than 3.8 million average subscriptions and represented 90% of its total subscriptions.

Book Publishing

The Book Publishing segment reported revenues of $546 million, which increased 4% year over year from the prior-year quarter’s level, primarily due to higher backlist and digital book sales and improved returns.

Key titles in the quarter included Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, A Death in Cornwall by Daniel Silva and The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey.
Digital sales rose 15% year over year, driven by a 26% increase in audiobook sales, which benefited from the continued contribution from the Spotify partnership and strong market conditions, as well as a 7% year-over-year increase in e-book sales. Digital sales represented 25% of Consumer revenues compared with 22% in the prior year. Backlist sales represented approximately 64% of Consumer revenues in the quarter compared with 61% in the prior-year quarter.

News Media

Revenues in the News Media segment fell 5% to $521 million, primarily due to lower other revenues generated from the transfer of third-party printing revenue contracts to News UK and DMG’s joint venture, as well as low advertising revenues. Adjusted revenues for the segment decreased 7% compared with the year-ago quarter.

Within the segment, revenues at News Corp Australia decreased 2% due to lower circulation revenues. News UK decreased 9% year over year due to lower advertising revenues.
Circulation and subscription revenues decreased $4 million in the reported quarter, primarily due to lower print volumes partially offset by the cover price increases.

Advertising revenues decreased 5% compared with the prior year, primarily due to lower print advertising at News Corp Australia and a decline in digital advertising at News UK due to a fall in traffic at some mastheads due to platform-related changes.

Digital revenues represented 39% of News Media segment revenues in the fiscal first quarter compared with 37% in the prior-year quarter and represented 37% of the combined revenues of the newspaper mastheads.

As of Sept. 30, 2024, The Times and Sunday Times closing digital subscribers, including the Times Literary Supplement, were 600K compared with 572K in the year-ago quarter. New York Post’s digital network reached 103 million unique users in September 2024 compared with 127 million in the prior year. The Sun’s digital offering reached 80 million global monthly unique users in September 2024 compared with 134 million in the prior year.

Other Financial Aspects

News Corporation ended the fiscal first quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $1.78 billion, borrowings of $2.7 billion and stockholder equity of $8.25 billion.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

NWSA currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Shares of NWSA have gained 26.3% year to date compared with the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector’s increase of 7.4% in the same time frame.

Some other top-ranked stocks from the broader sector that investors can consider are Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. MSGE, Carnival CCL and Flexsteel Industries FLXS, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of MSGE have gained 35.5% year to date. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MSGE’s fiscal 2025 revenues is pegged at $978.29 million, indicating a year-over-year increase of 1.98%. The consensus mark for earnings is pegged at $1.66 per share, which has gained 2 cents over the past 30 days.

Shares of Carnival have gained 27.9% year to date. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CVL’s 2024 revenues is pegged at $25.19 billion, indicating a year-over-year increase of 16.63%. The consensus mark for earnings is pegged at $1.31 per share, which has increased 2.3% over the past 30 days.

Shares of Flexsteel have gained 217.2% year to date. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FLXS’s fiscal 2025 revenues is pegged at $433.08 million, indicating a year-over-year increase of 4.92%. The consensus mark for earnings is pegged at $3.25 per share, which has increased 8.3% over the past 30 days.

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