Investors are cheering on these shares on Tuesday. But why?
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James Mickleboro James Mickleboro has been a Motley Fool contributor since late 2015. After studying economics at university back home in the United Kingdom, James came to live in Australia and managed to land a job at an Australian fund manager. This was the start of a love affair with Australian equities and he hasn’t looked back since. James is part of the CFA Institute’s Chartered Financial Analyst program and hopes it teaches him how to become an astute investor which allows him to help others with their own investing. Outside of reading and researching he spends many a late night watching the English Premier League and Seinfeld reruns. Published February 11, 11:24 am AEDT
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One area of the share market that is performing particularly positively on Tuesday is the media industry.
Three ASX media shares that are charging higher today are listed below. Let’s see why investors are scrambling to buy them:
Seven West Media Ltd (ASX: SWM)
The Seven West Media share price is up 9% to 18 cents. This follows the release of the media company’s half year results, which appear to have been better than feared.
Seven West Media reported a 6% decline in revenue to $727 million and a 26% decline in EBITDA to $92 million. This was driven largely by a 6% fall in total TV advertising revenue due to ongoing soft market conditions and the impact of major sporting events. The latter includes the FIFA Women’s World Cup taking place in the prior corresponding period and the Olympics being on a rival station during the reporting period.
However, it is worth noting that this didn’t stop Seven from increasing its total TV revenue share to 41.5% (+0.5 points), which is a record share for a non-Olympic broadcaster.
The ASX media share’s managing director and CEO, Jeff Howard, said:
Seven West Media’s H1 FY25 results reflect the ongoing soft total TV advertising market and the impact of major one-off sporting events. Mitigating the full impact of these revenue headwinds was an increase in our total TV revenue share to 41.5% (up 0.5 points) and the benefits of our year-on-year operating cost savings initiates.
No dividend was declared for the half. Its shares are down over 35% since this time last year.
SGH Ltd (ASX: SGH)
The SGH share price is up 6% to $51.67. As we covered here earlier, this morning this diversified company, better known as Seven Group Holdings, released its half year results.
The company reported a 2% increase in revenue to $5.5 billion and a 10% lift in EBIT to $843 million for the half. This was despite its media segment reporting an 18% decline in EBIT to $23 million for the period.
In light of its strong group profit growth, the SGH board decided to increase its fully franked interim dividend by 30% to 30 cents per share.
Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (ASX: NEC)
The Nine Entertainment share price is up over 10% to $1.42. This is despite the ASX media share not releasing its results today. These results are expected to be unveiled in a couple of weeks on 25 February.
However, investors appear to have gained enough knowledge from Seven West Media’s results to predict that Nine Entertainment is likely to deliver a better than forecast result later this month. As a result, they have been picking up its beaten down shares this morning.
Nine Entertainment shares remain down 25% over the past 12 months.
Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Nine Entertainment. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.