What Happened?
Shares of media, broadcasting, and digital services company E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ: SSP) fell 7.6% in the morning session after Shares of media company E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ: SSP) fell after the company reported second-quarter financial results that missed Wall Street's expectations for both revenue and earnings. The company reported revenue of $540.1 million, a 5.8% year-over-year decline that narrowly missed the $544.4 million analysts had anticipated. The earnings miss was more pronounced, with a reported GAAP loss of $0.59 per share, significantly worse than the consensus estimate of a $0.22 loss per share. This was also a steeper loss than the $0.15 per share loss from the same quarter last year. While the company did beat expectations for adjusted EBITDA and improved its operating margin, investors were likely focused on the top-line miss and the stark earnings shortfall. The results also came amid longer-term concerns, with analysts forecasting a revenue decline of 8.6% over the next 12 months.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
E.W. Scripps’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 92 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 4 days ago when the stock gained 3.1% on the news that markets rebounded following a sharp sell-off in the previous trading session as weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data fueled investor hopes for a potential interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve. The July Nonfarm Payrolls report revealed a gain of only 73,000 jobs, significantly below the 110,000 expected. Compounding the news, prior months' figures were revised downward by over 250,000 jobs. This data, indicating a cooling labor market, has led investors to dramatically increase bets on a September interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve, with the probability jumping to over 80% according to the CME FedWatch Tool. The prospect of lower borrowing costs typically stimulates economic activity and boosts consumer spending on non-essential goods and services, which directly benefits companies in the consumer discretionary space.
E.W. Scripps is up 1% since the beginning of the year, but at $2.55 per share, it is still trading 38.7% below its 52-week high of $4.15 from July 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of E.W. Scripps’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $225.62.
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