Fox Corporation FOXA reported second-quarter fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings per share of 96 cents, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 47.69%. The figure increased 182.4% year over year.

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Revenues increased 20% year over year to $5.08 billion, beating the consensus mark by 3.9%.

Affiliate fees (37.4% of total revenues) rose 6.3% to $1.9 billion, driven by 9% growth in the Television segment and 4.4% growth in the Cable Network Programming segment.

Advertising revenues (47.7% of total revenues) increased 21% year over year to $2.42 billion, primarily due to higher political advertising revenues, the impact of higher MLB postseason ratings and NFL pricing, continued digital growth led by the Tubi AVOD service, and stronger news ratings and pricing. 

Other revenues (14.9% of total revenues) surged 69.9% year over year to $756 million.

Top-Line Details

Cable Network Programming revenues (42.6% of total revenues) increased 30.6% year over year to $2.16 billion. Advertising revenues grew 32.2%, whereas revenues from Affiliate fees rose 4.4% year over year. Other revenues increased 125.4% on a year-over-year basis, primarily due to higher sports sublicensing revenues.

Television revenues (58.3% of total revenues) rose 16.5% from the year-ago quarter’s figure to $2.96 billion. Advertising revenues jumped 18.6% year over year. Affiliate fees grew 9% year over year, led by higher rates at both the company's owned and operated stations, as well as third-party FOX affiliates. Other revenues increased 32.6% year over year, primarily due to higher content revenues.

Operating Details

In the second quarter of fiscal 2025, operating expenses increased 11.3% year over year to $3.77 billion. As a percentage of revenues, operating expenses contracted 580 basis points (bps) to 74.4%. The increase in expenses was primarily due to higher sports programming rights amortization and production costs, and higher digital costs.

Selling, general & administrative (SG&A) expenses increased 6.1% year over year to $525 million. As a percentage of revenues, SG&A expenses contracted 140 bps to 10.3%.

Total adjusted EBITDA surged 123.1% year over year to $781 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 710 bps to 15.4%.

Cable Network Programming EBITDA rose 16.5% year over year to $657 million. Television reported an adjusted EBITDA of $205 million against a negative adjusted EBITDA of $138 million reported in the year-ago quarter.

Balance Sheet

As of Dec. 31, 2024, Fox had $3.32 billion in cash and cash equivalents compared with $4.05 billion as of Sept. 30, 2024. Long-term debt, as of Dec. 31, 2024, was $6.6 billion.

Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider

Fox currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Shares of FOXA have gained 65.4% in the past year compared with the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector’s growth of 14.7%.

Reynolds Consumer Products REYN, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts WH and Sony SONY are other top-ranked stocks that investors can consider in the broader sector. Each of the three stocks carries a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Shares of Reynolds Consumer Products have gained 0.4% year to date. REYN is set to report fourth-quarter 2024 results on Feb. 5.

Shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts have surged 33.9% year to date. WH is slated to report fourth-quarter 2024 results on Feb. 12.

Shares of Sony have appreciated 13.2% year to date. SONY is set to report fourth-quarter 2024 results on Feb. 13.

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