What to Do With This Misfit? Nexstar Media Group (NXST)
In the world of at-home viewing. There's Netflix, there's Nexstar, and then there's everyone else. Why?

The media industry has, arguably, the worst ratio of industry returns to how much the industry is discussed or analyzed. Over the past couple of decades, media is where investors’ capital has gone to die. It can be TV networks, broadcasters, production companies, radio, or newspapers. The vast majority of media companies have been market laggards at best. I suppose media gets a lot of attention because everyone can relate to it, whether it be linear TV, streaming, or radio. We all engage with it regularly and form opinions on, whether good or bad.
So when I started sorting through the list of companies that have beat the market over the longer term (at least 15 years), I was surprised to find one media company on the list: Nexstar Media Group (NASDAQ: NXST).
Since Nexstar’s IPO in late 2003, it is the only non-Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) media company to beat the S&P 500 on a total return basis.
I’m as surprised as you to find an “old” media company on the list of long-term, market-beating companies. This glaring outlier in the industry leads to a big question. How has this one company succeeded in generating shareholder returns when so many others have failed? Is Nexstar really better at running a non-Netflix media business than anyone else in the U.S.?
Let’s dig in.
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