The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is having a rather lousy day of trading on the ASX boards so far this Thursday. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 is down around 0.37% at 7,396 points. But one ASX 200 share is shaking off that malaise convincingly. That would be the Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (ASX: NEC) share price.
Nine, the multimedia giant behind the Stan streaming service, the old Fairfax newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review, and the eponymous TV channel, is rocketing today.
The Nine share price is currently up by a healthy 3.38% at $3.06 a share. Not only that, earlier today, Nine shares surged as high as $3.13, up around 5% at the time.
So what's allowing Nine to so comprehensively defy the market selloff this Thursday?
Image source: Getty Images
Nine keeps investors watching with FY 2022 guidance
One possible explanation is the annual general meeting presentation the company released this morning. This presentation confirmed that all directors up for reelection were convincingly reelected. That was with more than 99% of votes in favour in all cases. Nine's proposed remuneration package also passed with more than 99% of votes in favour.
But what probably got investors really excited is the trading update Nine included in this presentation. Nine announced it is expecting the first half of FY2022 to deliver earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of approximately 10% over the $355 million of EBITDA the company delivered for the first half of FY 2021. That would be somewhere in the range of $390 million.
This, Nine estimates, will come from across the board of the company's revenue streams. It's expecting higher earnings from free-to-air TV, radio, and publishing. But especially from broadcaster video on demand Stan and its remaining stake in Domain Holdings Australia Ltd (ASX: DHG).
It's probably this latter guidance that is exciting investors today. Certainty (especially of positive earnings numbers) is a valued commodity in the ASX investing space, and Nine investors have just got a spade of it.
Today's boost in the Nine share price is just the latest piece of good news for investors though. Nine shares are now up a pleasing 31.5% year to date in 2021, and 224% over the past 5 years.
At the current Nine Entertainment share price, this company has a market capitalisation of $5.2 billion, with a dividend yield of 3.44%.
