CluenexNexstar Media Group NXST
Nexstar Media Group scores weak on business quality (3.0 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Nexstar Media Group does
Nexstar Media Group operates local television stations and digital properties, generating revenue primarily from advertising sales and retransmission consent fees paid by pay-tv providers.
- What it does best
Nexstar dominates local television broadcast reach and retransmission rights, pulling in an operating margin of 19.5% that outpaces Fox's 20.4% gross-adjusted peers when considering local affiliate scale.
- The main risk
Heavy debt loads threaten financial stability, with total debt reaching $6.3B against just $280M in cash, leaving the balance sheet highly vulnerable to ad revenue downturns.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margins sit at 19.5% with a net margin of 2.8%, but free cash flow margins dropped to the 3rd sector percentile due to surging capital outlays, eroding scaling benefits.
Retransmission contracts and local broadcast licenses create a regulatory moat protecting affiliate stations, placing operating margins in the 62nd sector percentile.
Revenue fell 8.5% to $5.9B, marking a sharp reversal after prior years of stagnation and dragging its revenue growth into the bottom 3rd percentile of its sector.
Debt outweighs equity at 3.1x, and free cash flow turned negative at -$2.6B due to heavy capital expenditures of $3.5B, leaving the balance sheet under significant pressure.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
4 sold $1.7M outside pre-planned sales.
Our sealed record on NXST
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Nexstar Media Group scores weak on the Cluenex quality check (3.0 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat fair, growth slow and financial health weak.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: 4 sold $1.7M outside pre-planned sales.
Nov 5, 2026.
See NXST today
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Cite this page: Cluenex, “Nexstar Media Group (NXST)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/nxst/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.