News Corp’s (NASDAQ:NWSA) Q3: Beats On Revenue

Global media and publishing company News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) reported Q3 CY2025 results beating Wall Street’s revenue expectations , with sales up 2.3% year on year to $2.14 billion. Its GAAP profit of $0.20 per share was 9.4% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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• Revenue: $2.14 billion vs analyst estimates of $2.10 billion (2.3% year-on-year growth, 2% beat)

• EPS (GAAP): $0.20 vs analyst estimates of $0.18 (9.4% beat)

• Adjusted EBITDA: $347 million vs analyst estimates of $331.6 million (16.2% margin, 4.6% beat)

• Operating Margin: 56.1%, up from 10.2% in the same quarter last year

• Free Cash Flow was $4 million, up from -$31 million in the same quarter last year

• Market Capitalization: $15.03 billion

Established in 2013 after a restructuring, News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) is a multinational conglomerate known for its news publishing, broadcasting, digital media, and book publishing.

A company’s long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Any business can experience short-term success, but top-performing ones enjoy sustained growth for years. Unfortunately, News Corp struggled to consistently increase demand as its $8.5 billion of sales for the trailing 12 months was close to its revenue five years ago. This wasn’t a great result and suggests it’s a lower quality business.

Long-term growth is the most important, but within consumer discretionary, product cycles are short and revenue can be hit-driven due to rapidly changing trends and consumer preferences. News Corp’s recent performance shows its demand remained suppressed as its revenue has declined by 5.1% annually over the last two years.

News Corp also breaks out the revenue for its three most important segments: Dow Jones, News Media, and Book Publishing, which are 27.3%, 24.9%, and 25.4% of revenue. Over the last two years, News Corp’s Dow Jones (media subsidiary) and Book Publishing (general publishing) revenues averaged year-on-year growth of 4.3% and 3.3%. On the other hand, its News Media revenue (general media) averaged 2.6% declines.

This quarter, News Corp reported modest year-on-year revenue growth of 2.3% but beat Wall Street’s estimates by 2%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 2.8% over the next 12 months. Although this projection suggests its newer products and services will fuel better top-line performance, it is still below average for the sector.

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Operating margin is a key measure of profitability. Think of it as net income – the bottom line – excluding the impact of taxes and interest on debt, which are less connected to business fundamentals.

News Corp’s operating margin has been trending up over the last 12 months and averaged 16.5% over the last two years. On top of that, its profitability was top-notch for a consumer discretionary business, showing it’s an well-run company with an efficient cost structure.

This quarter, News Corp generated an operating margin profit margin of 56.1%, up 45.9 percentage points year on year. This increase was a welcome development and shows it was more efficient.

We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.

News Corp’s full-year EPS flipped from negative to positive over the last five years. This is encouraging and shows it’s at a critical moment in its life.

In Q3, News Corp reported EPS of $0.20, in line with the same quarter last year. This print beat analysts’ estimates by 9.4%. We also like to analyze expected EPS growth based on Wall Street analysts’ consensus projections, but there is insufficient data.

It was good to see News Corp beat analysts’ EPS expectations this quarter. We were also happy its revenue outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this print had some key positives. The stock remained flat at $25.08 immediately after reporting.

News Corp put up rock-solid earnings, but one quarter doesn’t necessarily make the stock a buy. Let’s see if this is a good investment. The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free for active Edge members.