Fox Corporation FOXA reported third-quarter fiscal 2024 adjusted earnings per share of $1.09, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 11.22%. The figure increased 16% year over year.

Revenues declined 15.6% year over year to $3.44 billion. The figure beat the consensus mark by 0.22%.

Affiliate fees (56.2% of total revenues) rose 4.4% to $1.93 billion, driven primarily by 9.2% growth in the Television segment.

Advertising revenues (35.8% of total revenues) plunged 34.1% year over year to $1.24 billion, primarily due to the absence of the prior year’s broadcast of Super Bowl LVII and fewer NFL games on FOX Sports.

Other revenues (7.9% of total revenues) declined 22.2% year over year to $274 million.

Fox Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

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

Top-Line Details

Cable Network Programming revenues (42.7% of total revenues) decreased 6.2% year over year to $1.47 billion. Advertising revenues declined 6.3%, whereas revenues from Affiliate fees rose 1% year over year. Other revenues plunged 55.3% on a year-over-year basis, primarily due to the timing of sports sublicensing revenues at the national sports networks.

Television revenues (56.2% of total revenues) declined 21.7% from the year-ago quarter’s figure to $1.93 billion. Advertising revenues plunged 39.8% year over year. Affiliate fees increased 9.2% year over year, led by higher rates at both the company’s owned and operated stations, and third-party FOX affiliates. Other revenues increased 8.6% year over year, driven by the timing of deliveries from FOX Entertainment Studios.

Operating Details

In third-quarter fiscal 2024, operating expenses decreased 24.8% year over year to $2.05 billion. As a percentage of revenues, operating expenses contracted 730 basis points (bps) to 59.5%. The decline in expenses was led by lower sports programming rights amortization and production costs, led by the absence of the prior year’s broadcast of Super Bowl LVII and fewer NFL games.

Selling, general & administrative (SG&A) expenses fell 3.4% year over year to $510 million. As a percentage of revenues, SG&A expenses expanded 190 bps to 14.8%.

Total adjusted EBITDA increased 7% year over year to $891 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 550 bps to 25.8%.

Cable Network Programming EBITDA rose 3.4% year over year to $819 million. Television reported an adjusted EBITDA of $145 million, up 23.9% year over year.

Balance Sheet

As of Mar 31, 2024, Fox had $3.79 billion in cash and cash equivalents compared with $4.12 billion as of Dec 31, 2023. Long-term debt, as of Mar 31, 2024, was $7.19 billion.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

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

Shares of FOXA have gained 11.8% year to date against the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector’s decline of 2.8%.

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader sector, which investors can consider, are Manchester United MANU, Netflix NFLX and Hasbro HAS, 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 Manchester United have plunged 24% year to date. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MANU’s 2024 revenues is pegged at $827.26 Million, indicating a year-over-year increase of 5.83%. The consensus mark is pegged at a loss of 37 cents per share, which has remained steady over the past 30 days.

Shares of Netflix have jumped 25.2% year to date. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NFLX’s 2024 revenues is pegged at $38.68 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 14.69%. The consensus mark for earnings is pegged at $18.3 per share, up 7.4% over the past 30 days.

Shares of Hasbro have climbed 20.1% year to date. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HAS’ 2024 revenues is pegged at $4.14 billion, indicating a year-over-year decline of 17.22%. The consensus mark for earnings is pegged at $3.61 per share, suggesting a year-over-year increase of 11.8%.

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