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FOXA: Future Earnings Will Depend On Sustaining Advertising And Audience Strength

Published
08 Aug 24
Updated
01 Jun 26
Views
160
01 Jun
US$68.32
AnalystConsensusTarget's Fair Value
US$73.88
7.5% undervalued intrinsic discount
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24.8%
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4.0%

Author's Valuation

US$73.887.5% undervalued intrinsic discount

AnalystConsensusTarget Fair Value

Last Update 01 Jun 26

Fair value Increased 4.06%

FOXA: Live Events And Streaming Momentum Will Support Higher Earnings Power

Analysts have nudged their average price target for Fox higher, with the fair value estimate moving from about $71.00 to roughly $73.88, citing updated assumptions around revenue growth, profit margins, discount rates, and future P/E expectations.

Analyst Commentary

Recent research updates point to a cluster of higher price targets for Fox, with several firms lifting their fair value estimates by US$1 to US$9. JPMorgan is among the major banks involved, alongside other bullish analysts who have revised their models.

Bullish Takeaways

  • Bullish analysts are reassessing Fox's revenue and margin outlook in a way that supports a higher fair value range around US$73.88. This suggests they view the current execution as generally supportive of these updated assumptions.
  • The series of upward target moves, including the US$9 revision from one major firm and smaller US$1 to US$4 adjustments from others, indicates that updated forecasts on earnings power and P/E expectations are feeding into more constructive valuation work.
  • Some analysts appear more comfortable with their discount rate and risk assumptions for Fox, which feeds directly into higher discounted cash flow estimates and, in turn, higher price targets.
  • JPMorgan's US$1 target increase, while modest, still aligns with the broader trend of incremental upgrades. This hints that even more conservative models are now pointing to room between current trading levels and their fair value estimates.

Bearish Takeaways

  • Even with higher targets, analysts are still applying explicit assumptions around discount rates and P/E multiples. This signals that they see valuation risk if Fox falls short of their revenue or margin expectations.
  • The range of target increases, from US$1 to US$9, suggests differing levels of conviction in Fox's execution, with some analysts only making small upward adjustments rather than a broad re-rating of the stock.
  • Analysts are tying their target changes to specific modelling assumptions rather than blanket optimism, which implies that any change in views on growth, profitability or risk could lead to renewed caution on fair value.
  • The reliance on updated assumptions rather than new hard data leaves room for revision, so investors should treat these higher targets as model outputs that still depend heavily on how Fox delivers against future forecasts.

What's in the News

  • Q3 fiscal 2026 earnings of US$1.32 per share and revenue of US$3.99b came in above consensus, with adjusted EBITDA at US$954m and higher operating margins. Fox highlighted strength in advertising, distribution revenues, and Tubi streaming performance. Source: Q3 FY26 earnings coverage.
  • Tubi revenue grew 23% in Q3 fiscal 2026 and the platform reached nearly 100 million monthly active users. This reinforced Fox management’s focus on ad supported streaming alongside live news and sports. Source: Q3 FY26 earnings coverage.
  • Q1 2026 results also exceeded Wall Street expectations despite an 8.6% year over year revenue decline. Management pointed to double digit advertising growth across the portfolio, record third quarter advertising revenue at FOX News, and higher distribution revenue tied to sports rights and digital engagement. Source: Q1 2026 earnings coverage.
  • Fox continues to highlight upcoming live events such as the FIFA Men’s World Cup and U.S. midterm elections as potential drivers of advertising and viewership across local stations and digital platforms. The company also notes a disciplined approach to acquisitions focused on news, sports, and digital. Source: Q1 2026 earnings coverage.
  • From January 1, 2026 to March 31, 2026, Fox repurchased 6,270,780 shares for US$99.98m, bringing total repurchases under the program announced on November 6, 2019 to 221,116,159 shares, or 42.71% of the company, at a total cost of US$8,533.03m. Source: company buyback update.

Valuation Changes

  • Fair Value: The updated analyst fair value estimate has risen slightly from $71.00 to about $73.88 per share.
  • Discount Rate: The revised discount rate has ticked up from 7.16% to roughly 7.42%, signalling a modestly higher required return in analyst models.
  • Revenue Growth: The revenue growth assumption has moved higher from about 2.31% to roughly 4.05%, indicating analysts are building in stronger top line expectations.
  • Net Profit Margin: The profit margin input has edged up from around 11.44% to about 11.62%, a small change that still supports slightly higher earnings power in forecasts.
  • Future P/E: The future P/E assumption has eased from about 15.49x to roughly 15.20x, reflecting a marginally lower valuation multiple applied to projected earnings.
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Key Takeaways

  • Declining traditional TV viewership and rising content costs threaten Fox's core revenue streams and long-term profitability.
  • Slow digital growth and regulatory risks could undermine audience stability and the company's ability to adapt to changing media trends.
  • Strong demand for live news and sports, digital expansion, pricing power, and operational discipline position Fox for resilient growth despite industry challenges and media shifts.

Catalysts

About Fox
    Operates as a news, sports, and entertainment company in the United States (U.S.).
What are the underlying business or industry changes driving this perspective?
  • The widespread shift away from traditional linear television toward streaming services, especially among younger audiences, poses a major risk to Fox's core broadcast and cable businesses, leading to persistent declines in advertising revenue and a shrinking addressable market; this will likely have a negative impact on top-line growth and future earnings.
  • Generational changes in media consumption-where younger viewers increasingly prefer non-traditional news and sports content-threaten the long-term sustainability of Fox's ratings strength, which underpins both advertising rates and affiliate fee negotiations; this could drive long-term revenue and net margin contraction as the audience base erodes.
  • Higher content acquisition costs, primarily from escalating sports rights fees (e.g., NFL, FIFA), are expected to pressure profitability; if rights inflation outpaces revenue growth from advertising and affiliate fees, compression in net margins and EPS is likely over the coming years.
  • The company's heavy exposure to news and opinion programming may elevate regulatory risk and make it more susceptible to advertiser boycotts in an environment of heightened scrutiny over misinformation and political polarization, driving volatility in advertising yields and potentially weakening revenue stability.
  • Digital transformation efforts, while showing growth at Tubi, are relatively modest compared to major pure-play streaming competitors; if Fox fails to scale its digital business as quickly as needed to offset declines in its linear business, long-term top-line growth and overall earnings will stagnate or decline.
Fox Earnings and Revenue Growth

Fox Future Earnings and Revenue Growth

Assumptions

How have these above catalysts been quantified?

  • Analysts are assuming Fox's revenue will grow by 4.1% annually over the next 3 years.
  • Analysts assume that profit margins will increase from 10.6% today to 11.6% in 3 years time.
  • Analysts expect earnings to reach $2.1 billion (and earnings per share of $6.33) by about June 2029, up from $1.7 billion today. However, there is a considerable amount of disagreement amongst the analysts with the most bullish expecting $2.5 billion in earnings, and the most bearish expecting $1.7 billion.
  • In order for the above numbers to justify the price target of the analysts, the company would need to trade at a PE ratio of 15.2x on those 2029 earnings, down from 15.7x today. This future PE is lower than the current PE for the US Media industry at 23.4x.
  • Analysts expect the number of shares outstanding to decline by 5.69% per year for the next 3 years.
  • To value all of this in today's terms, we will use a discount rate of 7.42%, as per the Simply Wall St company report.

Risks

What could happen that would invalidate this narrative?
  • Robust secular trends toward live news and sports consumption, evidenced by Fox's record-breaking Super Bowl and continued cable news dominance, indicate ongoing strong demand for Fox's core content, supporting resilient advertising revenue and stable affiliate fees.
  • Accelerating digital growth initiatives (Tubi's 100M+ MAUs and >30% revenue growth, FOX One launch, and LatAm streaming investments) diversify Fox's audience base, capture younger, cordless viewers, and provide new high-growth revenue streams, increasing the long-term revenue potential and net margins as digital scale improves.
  • Fox's significant pricing power and audience share in political and sports programming-demonstrated by record ad sales in the 2024 election cycle and upfront negotiations with double-digit volume and strong pricing growth-support a strong revenue outlook, even as linear TV faces broad industry headwinds.
  • Strategic operational discipline, continued share repurchases ($5B program increase), and a strong balance sheet (net cash/debt position and substantial free cash flow) demonstrate management's capacity to weather cyclical downturns and to invest in organic and inorganic growth, thereby sustaining earnings per share and shareholder returns.
  • Fox's unique position as both a broadcast and digital innovator (FOX One's DTC bundle, successful Tubi AVOD platform, and planned integration of local and national content) enables the company to adapt to secular shifts in media consumption, potentially offsetting the impact of cord-cutting and maintaining long-term revenue and operating margins.

Valuation

How have all the factors above been brought together to estimate a fair value?

  • The analysts have a consensus price target of $73.88 for Fox based on their expectations of its future earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors.
  • However, there is a degree of disagreement amongst analysts, with the most bullish reporting a price target of $97.0, and the most bearish reporting a price target of just $54.0.
  • In order for you to agree with the analysts, you'd need to believe that by 2029, revenues will be $18.3 billion, earnings will come to $2.1 billion, and it would be trading on a PE ratio of 15.2x, assuming you use a discount rate of 7.4%.
  • Given the current share price of $63.92, the analyst price target of $73.88 is 13.5% higher.
  • We always encourage you to reach your own conclusions though. So sense check these analyst numbers against your own assumptions and expectations based on your understanding of the business and what you believe is probable.

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Disclaimer

AnalystConsensusTarget is a tool utilizing a Large Language Model (LLM) that ingests data on consensus price targets, forecasted revenue and earnings figures, as well as the transcripts of earnings calls to produce qualitative analysis. The narratives produced by AnalystConsensusTarget are general in nature and are based solely on analyst data and publicly-available material published by the respective companies. These scenarios are not indicative of the company's future performance and are exploratory in nature. Simply Wall St has no position in the company(s) mentioned. Simply Wall St may provide the securities issuer or related entities with website advertising services for a fee, on an arm's length basis. These relationships have no impact on the way we conduct our business, the content we host, or how our content is served to users. The price targets and estimates used are consensus data, and do not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and they do not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Note that AnalystConsensusTarget's analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

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