Until midday Wednesday, it was understood that The E.W. Scripps Co. would be releasing its third quarter earnings report after the Closing Bell on the Nasdaq’s November 7 trading session, with a conference call for analysts and investors hosted by key company executives on the morning of Friday, November 8.
Thirteen days after that plan was shared with the public, Scripps has changed its mind, and is going with an earlier Q3 2024 release date.
And, a company spokesperson offered an explanation to why the move is being made. It has nothing to do with Election Day on Tuesday.
Editor’s Note: An earlier headline for this story incorrectly referred to a different company. We regret the error.
With no explanation, the company led by CEO Adam Symson and with broadcast TV stations under the leadership of Dean Littleton will now report third-quarter 2024 operating results before the markets open on Monday (11/4).
The earnings call with the company’s senior management team will now take place at 9am Eastern on November 4.
The schedule change demonstrates Scripps’ likely desire to get the results out prior to Election Day on November 5. But why?
A company spokesperson tells RBR+TVBR, “The main reason we moved up our earnings date by four days is because we wanted to get the Q3 earnings results out sooner so we could begin to examine the feasibility of a refinance this quarter.”
The news triggered a buying spree for “SSP,” up by more than 12% on Wednesday afternoon to $3.3850 as of 3pm Eastern — its best valuation since August 1.
With Scripps News poised for a transformation that results in a reset of expenses as it grows its Scripps Sports unit under former broadcast TV station head Brian Lawlor, how the company performs in Q3 could provide a good baseline to its overall reset undertaken across 2024.
Three analysts that cover Scripps chimed in to Yahoo! Finance with their Q3 earnings estimates. This put the consensus estimate on revenue at $624.67 million, and the EPS consensus at $0.56. That would represent a substantial swing from year-ago earnings per share of -$0.19. Meanwhile, sales growth is pegged at 10.3%.
