Beasley Broadcasting Group (NASDAQ: BBGI) reported Q2 EPS of $0.18. Revenue for the quarter came in at $61.63 million.

Commenting on the financial results, Caroline Beasley, Chief Executive Officer, said, “Beasley’s second quarter results reflect our ongoing execution of strategies to drive revenue, productivity and growth across our local radio broadcasting and digital platforms. The 1% year-over-year increase in second quarter revenues combined with essentially flat station expenses and the operating leverage related to the top line growth resulted in a 3.5% increase in second quarter SOI. Overall, our second quarter results again demonstrate the efficiencies we are realizing related to our expanded scale and the operating leverage in our model, which collectively led to a 28.6% increase in earnings per share.

“Focusing on strong core programming and targeted original local content across all distribution platforms is the foundation of our operating strategy and has proven vital to the Company’s long-term ratings strength and success. In this regard, we made notable progress on the continued buildout and enhancement of our digital platform during the second quarter, and we will be releasing phase two of our mobile apps upgrades in the second half of 2018. In addition, Beasley is in the process of rolling out a suite of data attribution products across our markets to provide brands and advertisers the tools they need to quantify the effectiveness and strong value of radio advertising.

“During the second quarter, Beasley remained committed to enhancing shareholder value through capital returns and capital structure improvements. In this regard, we declared our nineteenth consecutive quarterly cash dividend. In addition, interest expense decreased approximately 20% year-over-year to $3.8 million, reflecting the recent refinancing of our senior debt, which reduced our interest rate by 200 basis points. We used cash from operations to make voluntary debt repayments of $2.0 million in the second quarter and ended June 30, 2018 with total outstanding debt of $220.0 million.

“In July, we entered into a definitive agreement to acquire WXTU-FM in Philadelphia, PA from Entercom Communications Corp. for $38.0 million in cash in a transaction that is expected to be immediately accretive to Beasley’s free cash flow, excluding one-time transaction costs. The Company intends to finance the acquisition with a combination of debt and cash from operations. We believe the acquisition of WXTU-FM represents a strategically and financially compelling growth opportunity for our shareholders and further enhances our revenue and competitive position with a strong cluster of five FM and two AM stations in a key, top-ten market. Beasley began operating the station under a local marketing agreement on July 23, and the transaction is expected to close during the late third quarter or fourth quarter of 2018.

"Looking ahead, Beasley’s ongoing diversification and commitment to local content, innovation and growth has positioned us to capitalize on the many opportunities to serve listeners and businesses in our local markets in the second half of 2018. We look forward to realizing the strategic benefits of our recent transactions and intend to continue our strategic priorities of reducing debt and leverage, taking advantage of political revenue opportunities, improving top- and bottom-line performance and returning capital to shareholders through our quarterly cash dividend. We also remain focused on our station clusters matching or exceeding their market’s revenue performance and pursing other initiatives that can enhance shareholder value.”

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Beasley Broadcasting Group (BBGI) click here.