Revenues up slightly, cashflow down slightly was how you could summarize the  OUTFRONT 4Q 2023 press release, 4Q 2023 earnings presentation and conference call.

• Revenues increased by 1.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023.  Billboard revenue increased 2.6%.  Transit revenue declined 4%.  Local revenue grew 4.5%.  National revenue declined 3.1%.  Jeremy Male listed Hollywood strikes and weak tech spending as two reasons for slow revenue growth.
• OUTFRONT’s US billboard yield increased by 3.1% to $3,002.

• Adjusted cashflow (OIDBA) declined by 1.3% to $151.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 due to increased billboard lease expense and professional fees.
• At December 2023 OUTFRONT had $2.8 billion of debt with a weighted average cost of 5.7% and a Debt/Cashflow ratio of 5.4 times.

OUTFRONT CEO Jeremy Male expects higher revenue growth in 2024.

We’re happy to turn the page to 2024 which we expect will be a significantly improved year we’ll be starting off on the right foot in the first quarter as based on our trends of today we estimate that reported Q1 total revenue growth will accelerate to the low to mid single digit range with billboard and transit growing at similar rates

OUTFRONT CEO Jeremy Male on the sale of OUTFRONT’s Canadian business, proceeds of which will be applied against debt.

In October we announced the sale of our Canadian business to Bell Media for $410 million Canadian or around $300 million US subject to certain adjustments. We expect this transaction will close in the first half of this year.

OUTFRONT CFO Matt Siegel expects 2024 acquisitions to remain muted.

We closed $3 million of acquisitions during the quarter bringing our total for 2023 to about $34 million…We expect our 2024 deal activity so similar to that of 2023

Billboard Insider’s take:   Transit and national revenues are still weak.  Expenses are stubborn.  Not sure why but OUTFRONT’s stock went on a tear yesterday.  It rose 19% on a day when the S&P 500 increased 2%, Clear Channel Outdoor increased 13% and Lamar increased 5%.  Maybe investors expected something worse.  Maybe Jeremy Male’s optimism about 2024 made a difference.

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