News Corporation NWSA reported third-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings of 17 cents per share, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 10.53% but increased 54.5% year over year.
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Revenues of $2.01 billion increased 1% year over year but missed the consensus mark by 0.29%. The year-over-year increase was driven by growth in the Digital Real Estate Services, Book Publishing and Dow Jones segments.
Following the release of fiscal third-quarter earnings, NWSA shares have risen 1.06% in pre-market trading.
News Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
News Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
NWSA shares have gained 3.4% year to date against the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector’s decline of 0.3%.
NWSA shares have been riding on strategic growth in digital-driven segments and operational efficiency across its key businesses.
NWSA’s Quarterly Details
Adjusted revenues (which exclude the impact of foreign currency, acquisitions and divestitures) increased 2% year over year.
Total EBITDA increased 12% year over year to $290 million, primarily due to strong contributions from the Digital Real Estate Services and Dow Jones segments.
NWSA’s Segment Details
Digital Real Estate Services
Revenues in the Digital Real Estate Services segment increased 5% year over year to $406 million, driven by strong performance at REA Group, while Move revenues increased for the second consecutive quarter. Adjusted revenues and adjusted segment EBITDA increased 8% and 25% year over year, respectively.
Revenues in Move increased 2% year over year to $135 million, mainly due to strong revenue growth in sellers, new homes and rentals, including the partnership with Zillow. Based on Move’s internal data, the average monthly unique users of Realtor.com’s web and mobile sites fell 8% year over year to 66 million. Lead volume decreased 17% year over year, as it continued to be affected by high mortgage rates and affordability issues.
REA Group revenues rose 6% year over year to $271 million, driven by higher Australian residential revenues due to price increases, improved depth penetration and increased revenues from REA India.
Australian national residential buy listing volumes in the reported quarter were flat year over year, with listings in Sydney up 4% and Melbourne down 3%.
Foxtel Sale
In the third quarter of fiscal 2025, NWSA announced the completion of the sale of Foxtel Group to DAZN, including the repayment of outstanding shareholder loans and the receipt of a minority equity stake of approximately 6% in DAZN.
Foxtel’s assets are now classified as held for sale, with its operations reclassified as discontinued, and its Subscription Video Services have been merged into the News Media segment.
Dow Jones
Dow Jones segment’s revenues increased 6% year over year to $575 million, driven by higher circulation and subscription revenues from higher digital circulation revenues and continued growth in the professional information business. Digital revenues in the Dow Jones for the fiscal third quarter accounted for 82% of total revenues compared with 81% in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted revenues rose 6% year over year.
Circulation and subscription revenues rose 7% year over year, primarily driven by a 6% increase in professional information business revenues, led by 11% growth in Risk & Compliance revenues to $84 million and a jump of 10% in Dow Jones Energy revenues to $69 million.
Circulation revenues inched up 7% year over year, driven by continued growth in digital-only subscriptions and the conversion of customers from introductory promotions to higher pricing, but were offset by lower print volume. Digital circulation revenues accounted for 75% of circulation revenues for the quarter compared with 70% in the year-ago quarter.
Advertising revenues remained flat year over year in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, with both print and digital advertising revenues unchanged. Digital advertising accounted for 63% of total advertising revenues in the quarter in both periods.
During the fiscal third quarter, total average subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products were 6.1 million, representing a 7% increase compared with the year-ago quarter. Digital-only subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products grew 9% year over year to more than 5.5 million.
Total subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal grew 3% year over year to more than 4.3 million average subscriptions in the quarter. Digital-only subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal grew 5% year over year to more than 3.9 million average subscriptions and represented 90% of its total subscriptions.
Book Publishing
The Book Publishing segment reported revenues of $514 million, which increased 2% year over year from the prior-year quarter’s level, primarily due to higher book sales driven by the impact of a recently closed German book publisher acquisition. Key titles in the quarter included Wicked by Gregory Maguire, Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey, Summer in the City by Alex Aster and The Strawberry Patch Pancake House by Laurie Gilmore.
Digital sales rose 3% year over year, driven by a 3% increase in audiobook sales, which benefited from the continued contribution of the Spotify partnership. Digital sales represented 25% of Consumer revenues for both the reported quarter and the prior-year period. Backlist sales represented approximately 65% of Consumer revenues in the quarter compared with 63% in the prior-year quarter.
News Media
Revenues in the News Media segment fell 8% year over year to $514 million, primarily due to lower revenues from the transfer of third-party printing revenue contracts to News UK and DMG’s joint venture, as well as low advertising revenues. Adjusted revenues for the segment decreased 6% year over year compared with the year-ago quarter.
Within the segment, revenues at News Corp Australia decreased 7% year over year due to lower circulation revenues. News UK decreased 10% year over year due to lower advertising revenues. Circulation and subscription revenues decreased 3% year over year, primarily due to lower print volumes, which were partially offset by cover price increases.
Advertising revenues decreased 9% year over year compared with the prior year, which included a $4 million, or 2%, negative impact from foreign currency fluctuations, primarily due to lower print advertising revenues across the group and lower digital advertising revenues at News UK, primarily at The Sun.
Digital revenues represented 39% of the News Media segment’s revenues in the fiscal third quarter compared with 37% in the prior-year quarter and represented 37% of the combined revenues of the newspaper mastheads.
As of March 31, 2025, The Times and Sunday Times had 629K closing digital subscribers, including the Times Literary Supplement compared with 582K in the year-ago quarter.
The New York Post’s digital network reached 85 million unique users in March 2025 compared with 125 million in the prior year.
The Sun’s digital offering reached 74 million global monthly unique users in March 2025 compared with 126 million in the prior year.
Other Financial Aspects
News Corporation ended the fiscal third quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $2.09 billion, borrowings of $1.95 billion and stockholder equity of $8.20 billion.
Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider
Currently, News Corporation carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Advance Auto Parts AAP, Alibaba BABA and Canada Goose GOOS are some better-ranked stocks that investors can consider in the broader sector. While AAP sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), BABA and GOOS presently carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Advance Auto Parts shares have lost 33.6% year to date. AAP is set to report its first-quarter 2025 results on May 22.
Alibaba shares have gained 48.4% year to date. BABA is set to report its fourth-quarter fiscal 2025 results on May 15.
Canada Goose shares have lost 14% year to date. GOOS is set to report its fourth-quarter fiscal 2025 results on May 21.
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