On August 6, Nexstar Media Group (NASDAQ:NXST) reported second-quarter net revenue of $1.99 billion, a 62.2% jump from a year earlier and the highest quarterly total in the company’s history. The number looks almost too good, until you notice that $697 million of it came from folding in TEGNA, the broadcaster Nexstar closed on back in March. Behind that headline sits a business still fighting a federal antitrust lawsuit over the very deal fueling the growth, and a debt pile that grew right along with it.
Growth Beyond The TEGNA Bump
Strip away the TEGNA math and Nexstar’s legacy operations still grew. Advertising revenue climbed 81.5% to $862 million, and after backing out the $331 million TEGNA contributed, the rest came from a $75 million increase in political spending, since 2026 is an election year, plus incremental revenue from FIFA World Cup coverage on the company’s FOX-affiliated stations and continued growth in streaming ads. Distribution revenue rose 52.3% to $1.116 billion, helped by higher rates, growth in virtual pay TV subscribers, and new CW affiliations picked up through a recent CBS deal.
The cash side of the business kept pace. Adjusted EBITDA rose 62.7% to $633 million, and adjusted free cash flow more than doubled, up 135.6% to $238 million. Nexstar used that cash to repay $409 million in debt during the quarter while still paying out $57 million in dividends. The company’s other properties contributed too. NewsNation grew its total viewership 44% year over year in June, and The CW added ESPN and Roku as new streaming partners while its total day audience rose 10%.
A Balance Sheet Reshaped By TEGNA
The TEGNA deal that drove the growth also reshaped Nexstar’s balance sheet. Total debt stood at $11.744 billion as of June 30, 2026, nearly double the $6.333 billion on the books at the end of 2025, while cash on hand actually slipped to $218 million from $280 million. Net income margin fell to 5.7% from 7.4% a year earlier, as $53 million in one-time TEGNA-related expenses and higher interest costs ate into the earnings growth that revenue alone would suggest.
The acquisition also remains legally unresolved. DIRECTV and a group of state attorneys general sued to block the deal, and a preliminary injunction issued on April 17 is still forcing Nexstar and TEGNA to operate separately. A trial on the merits isn’t scheduled until July 6, 2027, and while the D.C. Circuit rejected challenges to the deal’s FCC approval on July 9, Nexstar is still waiting on a Ninth Circuit ruling on narrowing that injunction, expected in the fourth quarter. Until the separation order lifts, the company can’t fully combine operations or capture the synergies it modeled when it agreed to buy TEGNA, and it has already stripped those synergies out of its own leverage calculations. The political advertising surge came with a tradeoff too, as some of that $147 million crowded out non-political ad sales.
Where The Smart Money Sits
Hedge fund ownership of Nexstar slipped from 34 funds to 32 in the most recent quarter, a modest pullback rather than a rush for the exits. Short interest tells a sharper story, with 11.73% of the float sold short, a level that points to real organized skepticism about the stock. Yet the shares trade at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of just 9.45 as of September 3, a multiple that assumes little of the growth the second quarter just delivered, leaving a gap between what the business produced and what the market is currently willing to pay for it.
The Case Still Being Argued
Nexstar’s second quarter shows a company whose core broadcasting business is growing even without the TEGNA math, from political advertising to streaming partnerships at The CW. But the balance sheet tells a different story, with debt nearly doubled and cash reserves thinner than they were at the start of the year. For the growth case to hold, the legal cloud over TEGNA needs to clear so those synergies can actually be captured.
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