Versant 1Q26 Beat on Content Licensing and Advertising Buyback Announced and Guidance Reiterated

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Versant 1Q26 Beat on Content Licensing and Advertising Buyback Announced and Guidance Reiterated

J P M O R G A N North America Equity Research

14 May 2026

Versant Neutral

VSNT, VSNT US

1Q26 Beat on Content Licensing and Advertising Price (14 May 26):$40.44

Buyback Announced and Guidance Reiterated Price Target (Dec-26):$43.00

Versant delivered a solid 1Q beat with adj. EBITDA coming in 9%/16% ahead of Media, Entertainment and

our estimates and consensus. The upside was driven by content licensing ($121m Advertising

vs. JPMe $76m), where the sale of Keeping Up with the Kardashians to Hulu came David Karnovsky, CFA AC

in larger than we modeled, and an improved advertising trend, which management (1-212) 622-1206

framed as organic. VSNT rallied +10% (SPX+0.8%) on the EBITDA beat, solid david.karnovsky@jpmorgan.com

advertising, and an announced $100m ASR, although the stock was volatile Alexey Philippov, CFA

intraday, which we would attribute to softer linear distribution (~2% below JPMe) (1-212) 622-0810

and commentary for a more challenging 2H cost profile. Guidance was reiterated, alexey.philippov@jpmorgan.com

and we expect that the outsized Kardashians licensing deal (announced January 8) Douglas Wardlaw

(1-212) 622 4885

was already contemplated in management's FY outlook. We maintain our FY26 douglas.wardlaw@jpmchase.com

revenue estimate at the higher end of the guidance ($6.386b vs. $6.15b-$6.4b),

Kiscada A Hastings

offsetting the better content sales with a lower forecast for distribution revenue. (1-212) 622-0226

Our adj. EBITDA remains at $1.922b, broadly in-line with the mid-point (guide: kiscada.hastings@jpmchase.com

$1.85-2.0b), with the 1Q beat offset by reduced revenue and higher sports and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC

SG&A costs over the balance of the year.