Fox Corp. (FOXA) to Report Q1 Earnings: What's in the Cards?

Fox Corporation FOXA is set to report first-quarter fiscal 2021 results on Nov 3.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings has moved up 19.4% to 74 cents per share over the past 30 days, implying 10.8% decline from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter.

Moreover, the consensus mark for revenues is currently pegged at $2.59 billion, suggesting 3% decline from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter.

Notably, Fox has a stellar surprise history. It beat estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 99.85%.

Factors to Consider

Fox’s first-quarter fiscal 2020 results are expected to reflect the negative impact of coronavirus. Lower ad demand and spending is anticipated to have hurt advertising revenues, which accounts for over 50% of the company’s top line.

Moreover, cancellation and postponement of major sporting events globally is expected to have dented advertising revenues, partially offset by increased political-ad spending and resumption of certain sports events in the to-be-reported quarter.

Nonetheless, Fox’s investments in expanding its network are expected to have driven ratings. Additionally, portfolio strength across entertainment and news content is expected to have aided viewership.

In fact, in the to-be reported quarter, FOX News Digital witnessed its highest quarter in network history in multiplatform views (nearly 6.1 billion) and multiplatform minutes (nearly 14.2 billion), per Comscore data, cited by Fox.

The network saw double-digit increases on a year-over-year basis including average monthly multiplatform unique visitors (16%), multiplatform views (14%) and multiplatform minutes (19%).

Moreover, FOXBusiness.com averaged 31.5 million monthly multiplatform unique visitors, drove 693 million multiplatform total minutes and saw 419 million multiplatform total views.

Further, during the to-be reported quarter, FOX’s News Media division launched FOX News International, a new live digital streaming service of linear networks FOX News Channel and FOX Business priced at $6.99 per month.

This is expected to have helped the company to reach a global audience and expand their international user base while attracting advertisers to the OTT platform, thereby generating ad revenues.

What Our Model Says

According to the Zacks model, the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat.

Fox has an Earnings ESP of +15.93% and a Zacks Rank #2. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Other Stocks to Consider

Here are a few more companies you may want to consider, as our model shows that these also have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat in their upcoming releases:

TEGNA TGNA has an Earnings ESP of +15.39% and sports a Zacks Rank of 1, currently. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Activision Blizzard ATVI has an Earnings ESP of +2.96% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Take Two Interactive Software TTWO has an Earnings ESP of +7.51% and is Zacks #3 Ranked.

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Click to get this free report Activision Blizzard, Inc (ATVI) : Free Stock Analysis Report TakeTwo Interactive Software, Inc. (TTWO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Fox Corporation (FOXA) : Free Stock Analysis Report TEGNA Inc. (TGNA) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research