iHeartMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:IHRT) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript May 9, 2024
iHeartMedia, Inc. beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $495266.67, expectations were $-0.55. IHRT isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).
Operator: Hello. Thank you for standing by. My name is Sarah, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the iHeartMedia Q1 2024 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Mike McGuinness, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.
Mike McGuinness: Good morning, everyone. And thank you for taking the time to join us for our first quarter 2024 earnings call. Joining me for today’s discussion are Bob Pittman, our Chairman and CEO; and Rich Bressler, our President, COO and CFO. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, management will take your questions. In addition to our press release, we have an earnings presentation available on our website that you can use to follow along with our remarks. Please note that this call may include forward-looking statements regarding our financial performance and operating results. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and actual results could differ from what is stated as a result of certain factors identified on today’s call and in the company’s SEC filings.
Additionally, during this call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release, earnings presentation and our SEC filings, which are available in the Investor Relations section of our website. And now I’ll turn the call over to Bob.
Bob Pittman: Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everyone. We’re pleased to report that our first quarter 2024 results were in line with our previously provided adjusted EBITDA and revenue guidance ranges. As expected, we saw February and March improve over the January pace of business. Although the marketplace continues to be dynamic with a changing outlook on interest rates, inflation trends and global and domestic uncertainty, we remain confident that this is a recovery year, highlighted by the strong momentum in our podcast business and the sequential improvement of our Multiplatform Groups’ year-over-year adjusted EBITDA performance. We also see material upside from political advertising in the back half of the year and the benefit of our ongoing focus on cost efficiencies as well.
Now let me take you through some of the key financial results of the quarter. In the first quarter, we generated adjusted EBITDA of $105 million. In the middle of the guidance range, we provided of $100 million to $110 million. Our consolidated revenues for the quarter were down 1.5% compared to the prior year quarter, within the guidance range of flat to down 2%. Our Q1 free cash flow was negative $81 million, a significant improvement, compared to the negative $133 million in the prior year. As a reminder, Q1 is our seasonal low point for free cash flow in the year and we will generate positive free cash flow in each of the remaining quarters in 2024, with each quarter increasing sequentially. We anticipate our full year free cash flow to be significantly higher than last year.
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