NWSA's Q3 Earnings Surpass Estimates, Revenues Increase Y/Y
News CorporationNWSA reported third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings of 21 cents per share on an adjusted basis, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 31.3% and increased 23.5% year over year.
Revenues of $2.19 billion increased 8.8% year over year and exceeded the consensus mark by 4.4%. The year-over-year rise was driven by growth across the Dow Jones, Digital Real Estate Services and Book Publishing segments.
News Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
News Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | News Corporation Quote
NWSA's Quarterly Details
Adjusted revenues (which exclude the impacts of foreign currency, acquisitions and divestitures) increased 4% year over year. Total segment EBITDA rose 18% year over year to $343 million, marking News Corporation's 12th consecutive quarter of year-over-year total segment EBITDA growth on a continuing operations basis. EBITDA margin expanded 130 basis points to 15.7%, from 14.4% in the prior year.
NWSA's three core growth pillars — Dow Jones, Digital Real Estate Services and Book Publishing — collectively generated 17% segment EBITDA growth in the fiscal third quarter, accelerating from the rate recorded in the second quarter.
NWSA's Segment Details
Digital Real Estate Services
Revenues in the Digital Real Estate Services segment increased 17% year over year to $473 million, driven by robust growth at both REA Group and Move. Adjusted revenues and adjusted segment EBITDA increased 8% and 16% year over year, respectively. Segment EBITDA surged 25% to $155 million, with margin widening from 30.5% to 32.8%.
Revenues at Move, operator of Realtor.com, increased 10% year over year to $148 million, driven primarily by higher sales of RealPRO Select as Move shifts its focus to more premium offerings with higher revenues per lead and revenue growth in seller, new homes and rentals. Based on Move's internal data, average monthly unique users of Realtor.com's web and mobile sites for the fiscal third quarter were 66 million, flat year over year. Lead volume rose 6% year over year. Realtor.com averaged 5.3 visits per unique user in the third quarter compared with 3.5 at Zillow, 2.9 at Redfin and 1.9 at Homes.com, with overall visit share standing at 31% of total real estate portal visits, improving from 29% in the second quarter. Realtor.com also launched its app within ChatGPT and partnered with OpenAI to enhance the experience for sellers, buyers and realtors through AI-powered search and discovery tools.
REA Group revenues rose 20% year over year to $325 million, driven by a $31 million positive impact from foreign currency fluctuations, higher Australian residential revenues due to price increases, growth in add-on products and geographical mix, and higher financial services revenues. Strong Australian revenues were partly offset by a decrease in REA India revenues due to the sale of PropTiger and the closure of Housing Edge. Australian national residential new buy listing volumes in the quarter were up 1% year over year, with listings in Sydney up 4% and Melbourne up 7%.
Dow Jones
The Dow Jones segment's revenues increased 8% year over year to $619 million, extending a streak of 13 consecutive quarters of year-over-year EBITDA growth. Digital revenues accounted for 84% of total revenues in the quarter, compared with 82% in the prior year. Adjusted revenues rose 6% year over year, segment EBITDA increased 11% to $147 million and margin expanded 70 basis points to 23.7%. Adjusted segment EBITDA rose 12%.
Professional information business revenues grew 11% year over year, with Risk & Compliance revenues rising 19% to $100 million, driven by customer growth, product expansion and improved pricing. Contributions from the recently integrated acquisitions of Dragonfly and Oxford Analytica supported this growth during a period of heightened geopolitical uncertainty. Dow Jones Energy revenues grew 12% to $77 million, with customer retention remaining strong at approximately 90%. Management noted that the surge in U.S. energy exports is creating a new customer base that can be served without a commensurate increase in investment.
Circulation and subscription revenues rose 7% year over year. Digital circulation revenues accounted for 76% of circulation revenues, compared with 75% in the prior year. Advertising revenues increased 6% to $91 million, representing the highest third-quarter revenues since fiscal 2022, with digital advertising growing 13% and print declining 6%. Digital advertising represented 67% of total advertising revenues, up from 63%.
Total average subscriptions to Dow Jones' consumer products exceeded 6.5 million for the quarter, up 7% year over year. Digital-only subscriptions grew 9% to nearly 6.1 million. Total subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal increased 8% to 4.7 million, while digital-only subscriptions grew 11% to 4.3 million, representing 92% of total Wall Street Journal subscriptions and driven by enterprise partnerships. At the Dow Jones Investor Briefing in March 2026, management outlined a pathway to $1 billion in annual segment EBITDA within five years, underpinned by continued strength in Risk & Compliance and Dow Jones Energy.
Book Publishing
The Book Publishing segment generated revenues of $555 million, an 8% increase year over year and the highest third-quarter segment EBITDA result since fiscal 2021. Adjusted revenues grew 4% year over year. Segment EBITDA rose 14% to $73 million, with margin expanding 70 basis points to 13.2%. Adjusted segment EBITDA also increased 14%.
Strong demand for Rachel Reid's Game Changers series, fueled by the streaming adaptation of Heated Rivalry, drove much of the quarter's outperformance. Digital sales increased 11% year over year, with e-book sales rising 17% and audiobooks increasing 7%. Digital sales represented 26% of consumer revenues compared with 25% in the prior year. Backlist titles contributed 64% of consumer revenues compared with 65% in the prior year. Management cited an encouraging frontlist pipeline for the fiscal fourth quarter, including forthcoming releases from Ann Patchett, Alex Aster and Laurie Gilmore.
News Media
Revenues in the News Media segment increased 5% year over year to $538 million, primarily attributable to a $38 million positive impact from foreign currency fluctuations. On an adjusted basis, revenues declined 2% year over year. Digital revenues represented 40% of News Media segment revenues, compared with 39% in the prior year.
Circulation and subscription revenues rose 7% year over year. Advertising revenues increased 3% year over year, aided by a $13 million favorable foreign currency impact and higher digital advertising revenues, partially offset by lower print advertising revenues, notably at News U.K. Segment EBITDA declined 55% year over year to $15 million, primarily driven by lower contribution from News U.K. and launch costs associated with the California Post. Adjusted segment EBITDA declined 61%. Management described the California Post as a disciplined investment, noting meaningful increases in daily active users and California-based engagement across the New York Post Media Group.
As of March 31, 2026, The Times and The Sunday Times had 676,000 closing digital subscribers, compared with 629,000 in the prior year, a gain of 7%. Closing digital subscribers at News Corp Australia were 1,171,000, compared with 1,148,000 in the prior year.
Other Financial Aspects
News Corporation reported net income from continuing operations of $121 million for the third quarter, a 13% increase from $107 million in the prior year, driven by higher total segment EBITDA and partially offset by higher tax expense.
Free cash flow for the nine months ended March 31, 2026, was $535 million compared with $539 million in the prior year. The year-over-year decrease was primarily due to higher capital expenditures, partially offset by higher cash provided by operating activities. News Corporation expects strong free cash flow growth for the full fiscal year despite moderately higher capital expenditures.
As of March 31, 2026, cash and cash equivalents stood at $2.17 billion, a decline of 9.6% from $2.40 billion as of June 30, 2025, primarily reflecting the acceleration of share repurchase activity and higher working capital outflows during the period.
NWSA’s Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider
Currently, NWSA carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector are Capcom CCOEY, Sony SONY and Fox CorporationFOXA. Each stock carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Capcom is set to report fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 results on May 12. Capcom shares have declined 8.3% year to date.
Sony is slated to report fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 results on May 13. Sony shares have declined 22.3% year to date.
Fox Corporation is set to report third-quarter fiscal 2026 results on May 11. Fox Corporation shares have declined 14.2% year to date.
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