Survive til '25: With one quarter done, we've ranked winners and losers for 2024 so far
Welcome to a Tuesday update from Unmade, in which we look back on a bumpy first quarter of the calendar year. Below, we’ll crunch the numbers to tell you which ASX-listed media and marketing companies did best and worst.
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How News Corp and Enero found momentum in a hard place while Seven and Nine came down to earth
So that’s 2024 quarter-way done.
Or if you prefer to navigate your business life by the financial year, that was the end of Q3.
When it comes to the local ASX listed media and marketing companies, the first and third quarters are the ones where we learn the least. Most companies only issue half year numbers.
Instead, the market trades more on sentiment - an informed view on how the market is travelling.
Meanwhile, thinking in board rooms is turning to whether they can deliver investors the profit number they promised. With the market still sluggish, the drip-drip of redundancies will likely get louder over the next thee months as financial year end approaches.
This week The Ankler podcast, which analyses the media and entertainment industry from a US perspective summed it up: “Survive til 25” is the name of the game for the media industry.
The Unmade Index, which is our chart of the relative movement of listed media and marketing stocks, was down somewhat for the quarter. After ending 2023 on 628.87 points, the Unmade Index ended this quarter on 579.44 points. That’s a drop of 7.9% for the quarter.
Perhaps more significant though is the long term trend. The Unmade Index started at the beginning of 2022 on a nominal 1000 points. That means that over the nine quarters since then, investors in local media and marketing stocks have lost 42% of their money.
However, within that index, there have been winners and losers. To work out who has fared best - and worst - this quarter we’ve examined performance not just based on percentage movement, but also in absolute terms based on market capitalisation. We’ll share that data below the paywall.
Depending on methodology, the winners include News Corp and Enero Group, while the biggest losers include Nine and Seven West Media.
First, to the winners and losers by market capitalisation.
Market valuation movement ranking
On this metric, News Corp investors had the best time of it, and Nine the worst.