Townsquare Media has established itself as the local media company full of early risers. Its C-Suite executives long ago established 8am Eastern as the time it would hold its quarterly earnings calls, and Tuesday (8/6) was no different.
What would CEO Bill Wilson (pictured) have to share? “Strong” growth stories, for sure.
Townsquare’s Q2 was propelled by both advertising and a healthy revenue increase at Townsquare Interactive.
Consolidated net revenue for Townsquare in Q2 2019 came in at $113.1 million, up from $105.3 million in the second quarter of 2018.
This was directly attributable to a Townsquare Interactive net revenue climb to $15.3 million, from $11.7 million.
Ad revenue jumped to $91.5 million, from $86.3 million.
Meanwhile, Live Events saw net revenue slip to $6.3 million from $7.3 million. However, the division’s adjusted operating income grew to $1.6 million, from $1.46 million.
Comparatively, adjusted operating income for advertising increased to $30.9 million, from $27.7 million, as Townsquare Interactive adjusted operating income grew to $5 million, rising from $3.4 million.
As such, total adjusted operating income grew to $37.5 million from $32.6 million, as net income soared to $10.7 million (37 cents per diluted share) from $1.6 million (30 cents) as discontinued operations moved off the balance sheet.
“Our second quarter growth rates were fueled by an acceleration in advertising
net revenue growth, which increased 7.1% excluding political revenue over the prior year, and the strong net revenue growth of Townsquare Interactive, which increased 30.8% over the prior year,” Wilson said ahead of the company’s 8am earnings call.
Townsquare Interactive added approximately 1,100 net subscribers in Q2, he added.
“The ongoing strong performance of Townsquare Interactive and Townsquare Ignite, our proprietary digital programmatic advertising platform, reinforce our belief that each of those divisions will generate $100 million in annual net revenue within the next three to five years,” said Wilson, who added that with greater than one-third of the company’s total net revenue originating from digital sources, “Townsquare is not your average radio company.”
In fact, ongoing strength at Townsquare Interactive and Townsquare Ignite leads Wilson to say that Townsquare is best described as “a premier local and digital marketing solutions company, bringing large market solutions to small and mid-sized markets.”
Based on the Q2 results and its outlook for the remainder of 2019, Townsquare is now expecting its Q3 net revenue to fall in the range of $109 million-$111 million while adjusted EBTIDA is expected to be between $27 million and $28 million.
For the full year 2019, net revenue is expected to be between $424 million and $430 million; adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $98 million and $100 million.
With the release of Townsquare’s Q2 results, the company’s Board of Directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.075 per share. The dividend will be payable on November 15, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on September 26.
Investors were thrilled with the results. With Wall Street rebounding from a disastrous Monday due to a decline in the Chinese Yuan against the U.S. Dollar, Townsquare shares were up 10.2% to $5.75 just before 11am Tuesday.
