Gray Television to Report Q2 Earnings: What's in Store?

Gray Television GTN is set to report second-quarter 2024 results on Aug 8.

For the second quarter, GTN expects revenues between $828 million and $846 million. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is currently pegged at $834 million, suggesting an increase of 2.58% from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter.

The consensus mark for second-quarter earnings per share has remained unchanged at 10 cents in the past 30 days, indicating an increase of 200% from the year-ago quarter's reported figure.

Gray Television's earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate twice in the last four quarters and missed the other two occasions, delivering an average negative surprise of 3.16%.

Let's see how things have shaped up for this announcement.

Factors to Consider

Gray Television's second-quarter performance is expected to have reflected steady demand for the popular sporting events on its stations, from the Super Bowl to local packages of NBA games.

In the first quarter, core advertising revenues increased 4% year over year and accounted for 45% of total net revenues.

Moreover, in the first quarter of 2024, GTN earned approximately $18 million of net revenues from the broadcast of the Super Bowl compared with an aggregate of $6 million of net revenues related to the broadcast of the Super Bowl on its 27 FOX channels during the first quarter of 2023.

The growing popularity of Gray Television's channels and upcoming events like Summer Baseball and its partnership with InvestigateTV+ are likely to have aided GTN's top-line growth in the to-be-reported quarter.

However, during the first quarter of 2024, GTN did not make any material income tax payments. During the remainder of 2024, the company anticipates income tax payments in the range of $195-$215 million.

The company has been witnessing increased operating expenses in station expenses. The rising expenses are likely to have kept margins under pressure in the to-be-reported quarter.

What Our Model Says

According to the Zacks model, the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. But that's not the case here.

GTN has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) at present.

Stocks to Consider

Here are some stocks worth considering, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to beat on earnings this season.

Shopify has an Earnings ESP of +7.78% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present.

Shopify's shares have plunged 32.9% year to date. SHOP is set to report its second-quarter 2024 results on Aug 7.

DigitalOcean has an Earnings ESP of +2.19% and flaunts a Zacks Rank of 1 at present.

DigitalOcean's shares have lost 25.7% year to date. DOCN is set to report its second-quarter 2024 results on Aug 8.

MKSI has an Earnings ESP of +7.28% and sports a Zacks Rank #1 at present.

MKSI's shares have gained 2% year to date. MKSI is set to report second-quarter 2024 results on Aug 7.

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