Nexstar Media Group racked up a record second quarter in terms of profit and revenue.
The company said it didn’t think the concerns about inflation or recession would affect its business the rest of the year.
Second-quarter net income rose 13.7% to $227.5 million, or $5.56 a share, from $200.1 million, or $4.51 a share, a year ago.
Revenue rose 10% to $1.245 billion.
Core advertising revenue was down 2.5% to $413 million, while political advertising jumped to $86.7 million from $8.5 million a year ago. That left total advertising revenue up 15.7% to $409 million year over year.
Distribution revenue including retransmission consent fees rose 4.7% to $646.1 million. Digital revenue grew 20.2% to $88.2 million.
“Nexstar delivered record second-quarter financial results, including all-time high second quarter net revenue,” said CEO Perry Sook.
"Our results benefitted from strong year-over-year growth in political advertising, distribution, and digital revenues,” Sook said. “We continue to have solid three-year visibility on our growth trajectory, given the expected continuation of strong political advertising for the 2022 mid-term and 2024 presidential election cycles and the renewals of distribution agreements in 2022 and 2023 representing the substantial majority of our subscribers. In addition, we do not currently see evidence that macroeconomic challenges are having a material impact on Nexstar’s business.”
Sook said Nexstar is repeating guidance for pro forma average annual free cash flow of $1.4 billion over the 2022/2023 cycle. Nexstar’s board’s recent approval of a new $1.5 billion share repurchase authorization “further underpins our confidence in Nexstar’s free cash flow growth outlook,” the CEO stated. ■
