NWSA's Q4 2026 Earnings Beat Estimates on Core Growth, Rise Y/Y

NWSA's Quarterly Details

Adjusted revenues (which exclude the impacts of foreign currency, acquisitions and divestitures) increased 7% year over year. Total segment EBITDA increased 31% year over year to $423 million. Adjusted total segment EBITDA increased 25%, while net income from continuing operations surged 167% year over year to $230 million.

EBITDA growth was driven by robust contributions from Digital Real Estate Services, Dow Jones and Book Publishing, supported by higher revenues and lower impairment and restructuring charges. Digital Real Estate Services, Dow Jones and Book Publishing remained the company's core growth engines during the quarter.

NWSA's Segment Details

Digital Real Estate Services

Revenues in the Digital Real Estate Services segment increased 19% year over year to $553 million, driven by higher revenues at both REA Group and Move. Adjusted revenues and adjusted segment EBITDA increased 10% and 33% year over year, respectively. Segment EBITDA climbed 46% to $222 million.

REA Group revenues increased 21% year over year to $386 million, benefiting from higher Australian residential revenues due to price increases, growth in add-on products and a favorable foreign currency impact. Australian national residential buy listing volumes increased 11% year over year, with Sydney and Melbourne listings each rising 8%.

Move, operator of Realtor.com, generated revenues of $167 million, up 13% year over year, driven by higher sales of RealPRO Select and growth across seller, new homes and rentals. Average monthly unique users of Realtor.com declined 6% year over year to 68 million, while lead volumes increased 1%. According to Comscore, Realtor.com accounted for 33% of total visits across U.S. real estate portals during the quarter.

Dow Jones and Book Publishing

Dow Jones revenues increased 7% year over year to $644 million. Digital revenues represented 84% of total segment revenues compared with 83% in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted revenues increased 6%, while segment EBITDA rose 20% to $181 million.

Circulation and subscription revenues increased 7% year over year, supported by higher content licensing revenues, 11% growth in Dow Jones Risk & Compliance revenues to $102 million and higher digital circulation revenues. Advertising revenues increased 5%, with digital advertising revenues rising 10%. Total average subscriptions to Dow Jones' news products exceeded 6.7 million, up 7% year over year, while digital-only subscriptions increased 9% to nearly 6.3 million.

Book Publishing revenues increased 15% year over year to $566 million, reflecting higher physical and digital book sales across General Books, the U.K. and Children's Publishing. Digital sales increased 12% year over year, while segment EBITDA rose 14% to $57 million. Backlist sales represented approximately 60% of consumer revenues compared with 65% in the prior-year quarter due to a stronger frontlist slate.

News Media

News Media revenues increased 5% year over year to $574 million, primarily reflecting a favorable foreign currency impact. On an adjusted basis, segment revenues were flat year over year. Digital revenues represented 41% of News Media segment revenues compared with 38% in the prior-year quarter.

Circulation and subscription revenues increased 7% year over year, aided by higher cover pricing, subscription pricing and content licensing revenues. Advertising revenues declined modestly due to weaker print advertising, largely offset by favorable foreign currency movements and a benefit from the FIFA World Cup at News Broadcasting.

Segment EBITDA declined 14% year over year to $24 million due to higher costs at News Broadcasting related to the FIFA World Cup and expenses associated with the California Post launch. The Times and Sunday Times ended the quarter with 681,000 digital subscribers compared with 640,000 a year ago.

Other Financial Aspects

Free cash flow for fiscal 2026 increased 42% year over year to $811 million, while operating cash flow from continuing operations rose 26% to $1.24 billion, driven by higher segment EBITDA and working capital improvements.

On a sequential basis, cash and cash equivalents declined 3.5% to $2.10 billion as of June 30, 2026, from $2.17 billion as of March 31, 2026. Total current assets fell 2.1% sequentially to $4.48 billion, while total assets edged up 0.2% to $15.54 billion. Total current liabilities rose 2.6% sequentially to $2.76 billion, and total equity declined 0.5% to $9.24 billion, reflecting continued share repurchase activity during the quarter.

NWSA’s Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider

Currently, NWSA carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector are American Public Education APEI, Newsmax NMAX and Target Hospitality TH. Each stock carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

American Public Education is set to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 10. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for American Public Education’s second-quarter EPS is pegged at 36 cents, unchanged over the past 30 days and indicating an improvement of 1900% year over year.

Newsmax is slated to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 13. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Newsmax’s second-quarter loss is pegged at 2 cents per share, unchanged over the past 30 days and indicating an improvement of 96.61% year over year.

Target Hospitality is slated to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 10. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Target Hospitality’s second-quarter loss is pegged at 10 cents per share, unchanged over the past 30 days and indicating an improvement of 33.33% year over year.

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