WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Digital advertising, Digital Marketing Solutions and traditional radio revenue. Each have their own nuances, and challenges, particularly in the current environment for the nation’s publicly traded radio and TV station owners. Yet for Townsquare Media, all three business segments each demonstrated sequential revenue growth in the third quarter.
That’s a big takeaway from the locally-focused digital-first company led by CEO Bill Wilson. But how did Townsquare Media perform on a year-over-year basis? The company surpassed the Street’s earnings per share estimate but was narrowly short on revenue.
For the three-month period ending September 30, net revenue inched forward to $115.31 million from $115.10 million. Two analysts polled by Yahoo! Finance offered predictions for Townsquare Media in Q3, and they pegged revenue to come in at $115 million, and at $115.95 million, respectively. As such, Townsquare “missed” the consensus estimate by a mere $160,000.
Perhaps more importantly, Townsquare Media swung to net income of $11.34 million ($0.63 per diluted share), from a Q3 2023 net loss of $36.5 million (-$2.27 per share), as the non-cash impairment charge Townsquare elected to take this quarter came in at $2 million — a significant change from the $30.97 million non-cash charge seen in Q3 2023.
On an adjusted basis, net income was down, moving to $6.08 million ($0.35 per diluted share) from $8.25 million. However, this was anticipated, as the two analysts that cover Townsquare predicted EPS of $0.32 and $0.37, respectively, for the owner of such properties as WYRK-FM in Buffalo, WKXW “New Jersey 101.5” in Trenton, N.J., and KUAD “K99” in Fort Collins-Greeley, Colo.
Adjusted EBITDA less interest, capital expenses and taxes declined to $2.96 million, from $4.42 million.
Political adjusted EBITDA in Q3 came in at $3.15 million, rising from $533,000.
By comparison, industry peer Beasley Media Group saw political revenue in Q3 2023 come in at $2.7 million.
So, how did digital advertising, Digital Marketing Solutions and traditional radio revenue perform on a year-over-year basis?
Digital was up, broadcast advertising was flat and DMS revenue was down by nearly 6%.
Townsquare offered guidance for Q4 2024, and net revenue is anticipated to fall between $114.8 million and $118.8 million. Adjusted EBITDA is anticipated to be in the range of $30.8 million-$31.8 million.
For FY 2024, net revenue is expected to come in between $448 million and $452 million, while adjusted EBITDA is forecast to come between $100 million and $110 million, both within Townsquare’s original guidance gains.
In prepared comments ahead of Thursday’s earnings call scheduled at 10am Eastern, the same time as the Nexstar Q3 earnings call, Wilson shared that he was pleased Townsquare’s net revenue returned to year-to-year growth, highlighting the company’s local focus “and our unique and differentiated digital platform.”
Wilson added that a return to net revenue growth in the third quarter coincided with a return to total Digital net revenue growth, which increased by +1% year-over-year. In particular, Townsquare Interactive’s sequential revenue growth improved to 3% quarter–over-quarter.
Will Wall Street take the sequential growth into consideration, rather than the traditional year-over-year look? Perhaps a quarterly cash dividend of $0.1975 per share is incentive enough to invest in “TSQ,” traded on the NYSE.
The dividend is payable on February 1, 2025 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on January 21, 2025. As of yesterday’s closing price of $10.27, that reflects a dividend yield of approximately 8%.
— With reporting from Boca Raton, Fla., by RBR+TVBR
