Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (NXST) · Nov 5, 2026 · Earnings
Miss — Diluted EPS $7.92 vs ~$8.08 consensus
Nexstar’s Q3 earnings beat revenue expectations but missed on EPS, with TEGNA scaling results while heavy debt and the injunction limit synergies.
Nexstar is now a much larger local-TV operator following its March 19, 2026 TEGNA acquisition, but a preliminary injunction still requires the businesses to remain operationally separate and has delayed the cost synergies that underpin the deal.
The top line cleared the bar, but the earnings miss matters more. Q3 revenue reached $2.13 billion, ahead of the roughly $2.07 billion consensus, driven by TEGNA and an election-year advertising surge. The result was helped by $317 million of political advertising and $765 million of incremental TEGNA revenue, making this a real scale-up but not a clean read on underlying recurring growth.
| Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | Consensus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net revenue (Financial Summary) | $2.133B (+78.0%) | $1.198B | ~$2.07B |
| Diluted EPS (Statements of Operations) | $7.92 | $2.14 | ~$8.08 |
| Adjusted EBITDA (Financial Summary) | $756M (+111.2%) | $358M | |
| Adjusted free cash flow (FCF reconciliation) | $443M (+166.9%) | $166M | |
| Total debt (Debt, Cash and Leverage) | $11.409B | $6.333B |
The operating engine is performing, but financing costs are absorbing more of it. Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled and the margin expanded to 35.4%, while adjusted free cash flow rose to $443 million. Yet net interest expense also doubled year over year to $186 million in the quarter, and the company recorded an additional $11 million debt-extinguishment loss. The strong operating figures therefore do not translate one-for-one into bottom-line earnings.
Debt reduction is visible, but the balance sheet remains the central execution risk. Nexstar repaid $786 million year to date and another $525 million after quarter-end, but total debt stood at $11.4 billion versus $6.3 billion at year-end after funding TEGNA. The reported 3.03x first-lien net leverage ratio remains below the 4.75x covenant test, so this is not an immediate covenant problem; it is a heavier capital structure that leaves less room for integration setbacks or weak non-political advertising.
The TEGNA thesis is still only partly being tested. The acquisition is already contributing materially to revenue and EBITDA, but the preliminary injunction has prevented full integration and caused Nexstar to exclude expected synergies from its covenant leverage calculation. The underlying deal economics therefore remain unresolved rather than validated; the next major external checkpoint is the Ninth Circuit’s November 17, 2026 oral argument, with the merits trial set for July 6, 2027. 〔0〕
Bottom line: Nexstar is executing well operationally and beat on revenue, but the quarter still missed the earnings bar because the larger TEGNA-funded structure carries heavier interest costs. This is a mixed quarter leaning slightly negative: growth is evident, while the deal’s debt burden and blocked synergies remain unresolved.
Ninth Circuit oral argument on TEGNA injunction, November 17, 2026
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