This wasn’t supposed to happen, based on what was in the plans a year ago.
Tribune Media is set to be gobbled up by Perry Sook’s Nexstar Media Group, not Sinclair Broadcast Group.
What is the health of the company Sook is set to get? It’s stellar, with Tribune’s EPS easily beating Wall Street estimates.
For the three months ended Dec. 31, 2018, Tribune Media saw total operating revenue of $578.73 million, rising from $489 million.
This led to operating profit of $165.97 million, jumping from $123.42 million.
How was net income? It moved downward to $132.84 million ($1.50 per diluted share) from $328.8 million ($3.73).
But, like TEGNA, that’s not exactly accurate, as adjusted EBITDA rose to $233.34 million from $169.1 million, and Broadcast Cash Flow surging to $218.6 million from $162.93 million.
Thus, adjusted diluted EPS rose to $1.55 from 81 cents.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected non-adjusted diluted EPS of $1.33 per share.
For fiscal 2018, Tribune reported net income of $412.6 million ($4.67 per share), comoared to $194.1 million ($2.20 per share) in the last quarter of 2017.
In the eyes of Peter Kern, Tribune Media’s CEO, 2018 was an outstanding year for the company.
He said, “We reported record consolidated revenue and Adjusted EBITDA for both the fourth quarter and full year 2018, powered by exceptionally strong political advertising revenues, significant growth in retransmission and carriage fee revenues, and a meaningful contribution to our operating results from our cable network, WGN America. Despite substantial political displacement, core advertising remained solid, delivering positive year-over-year growth from Election Day to the end of the year – a trend we expect to continue in the first quarter of 2019. In addition, our focus on containing costs across the company drove 2018 consolidated expenses down despite higher network affiliation fees.”
In light of Tribune’s pending sale to Nexstar, Tribune Media is not providing financial guidance for the full year 2019, nor did Tribune conduct a conference call regarding its fourth quarter and full year 2018 financial results.
