Gray Television reports Q2 adjusted EPS (10c), consensus (18c)

Reports Q2 revenue $813M, consensus $796.2M. The company said, “We are particularly pleased with the performance of our television stations during the quarter. Our television stations’ core advertising revenue increased 4% on a year-over-year basis. We saw continued improvement in the automobile advertising category with a 20% year-over-year increase, which was fueled by even larger increases year-over-year in the national segment of that category. In addition, political advertising revenues in a non-political year were relatively strong at $12M. As with the Q1, the Q2’s political advertising revenue was double the amount of the corresponding quarter in 2019, the last year that preceded a presidential election year. Given these solid performances across our television stations’ in the first half of 2023, we anticipate that our television station operations will grow advertising revenues during the remainder of 2023, as well as future years, due to our strong positions in local markets and the exceptional efforts of our local station staff.”