Key points
- The News Corp share price leapt 6% at the market open today
- The media giant reported record profits among its latest financial results
- Kayo and BINGE both hit more than 1 million subscriptions
The News Corp (ASX: NWS) share price is soaring today after the company announced its results for the second quarter and first half of 2022.
At the time of writing, the News Corp share price is up 4.37% at $32.95. However, soon after the market opened, its shares hit $33.60 — a gain of 6.4% on the previous close.
Let's take a look at what the media giant announced.
Revenues 'highest of any quarter'
The News Corp share price is climbing on the back of a record-breaking quarter for the three months ended December 21. The company said it had achieved "record revenues and the highest profit of any quarter since the company was formed in 2013".
Highlights of the second-quarter FY22 results included:
- Revenues up 13% to $2.72 billion, compared with $2.41 billion for the prior corresponding period (pcp);
- Net income of $262 million, compared with $261 million for the pcp;
- 'Total segment' earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased 18% to $586 million, compared with $497 million for the pcp — the highest since the company separated in 2013;
- 'News media segment' EBITDA up 68%; and
- Earnings per share (EPS) of 40 cents, compared with 39 cents for the pcp.
Looking at the first-half FY22 results, highlights included:
- Revenues up 15% year-over-year (YoY);
- Net income rose 72% YoY; and
- Total segment EBITDA up 30% YoY.
News Corp attributed its growth to all revenue streams, namely "real estate, advertising, and recent acquisitions".
The company saw its digital retail estate services segment revenues increase by 35%. This was helped by ongoing traffic gains at Move — operator of realtor.com — and strong listings volumes at REA Group.
Its news media segment EBITDA increase was due to a "rebound in the advertising market, new content licensing revenues and strong subscriber gains".
The Dow Jones also saw "its highest quarterly since its acquisition and highest revenue since fiscal 2011".
Looking at its streaming services, News Corp's Foxtel subscribers grew by 66% against its pcp, and both BINGE and Kayo each hit more than 1 million total subscribers.
All in all, the company's profitability for the first half of FY22 was up 30% YoY to almost $1 billion.
'From strength to strength'
Commenting on the results that appear to be driving the News Corp share price today, chief executive Robert Thomson said:
We are delighted with our planned acquisitions of the OPIS and Base Chemicals businesses, which we expect will close in the first half of calendar 2022 and bolster the highly profitable Dow Jones Professional Information Business.
The landmark agreements with Big Tech continued to benefit our journalism and our bottom line. In addition to the substantial deals with Google and Facebook, we expanded our multi-year global agreement with Apple, which is expected to be an important source of subscriptions and of advertising revenue from our news sites around the world.
Our increasing momentum has given us the ability to make opportunistic acquisitions and further our $1 billion share buyback program.
News Corp is clearly going from strength to strength.
News Corp share price snapshot
Over the last 12 months, the News Corp share price has increased by more than 30%. During that time, Its lowest price of $25.10 came exactly a year ago, with its highest price of $35.20 in August.
It is also up 11% over the past week.
The company has a market capitalisation of $1.39 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 26.81.
