Future plc (FUTR) Earnings Call Transcripts
Future plc's Latest Earnings Call - March 31, 2026
In the pre-close trading update for Q2 FY '26, Future plc reported a cautious outlook, signaling continued audience declines and increased PPC inflation, which could impact margins. Revenue for the half year is expected to decline by approximately 6.5%, with EBITDA margins projected between 25% and 27%. Management has accelerated a share buyback program, indicating confidence in the company's long-term value despite short-term challenges.
Reported metrics
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Organic Revenue Change | -6.5% (miss) |
| EBITDA Margin | 25% to 27% (miss) |
| PPC Cost Increase | double digit YoY (negative) |
| Future Optics Pipeline | GBP 10 million (positive) |
| Free Cash Flow | GBP 100 million (inline) |
| SheerLuxe Performance | outperforming plans (positive) |
Guidance from management
Management has taken a cautious stance, expecting continued audience declines in H2 and projecting organic revenue to be down low single digits. They have maintained a focus on strategic initiatives to drive growth despite these challenges.
What management said
Thank you. Sharjeel, I will take this. Look, Google's road map is public and what I see, you see and everyone sees, right? They don't sort of like diverge anything in terms of like core strategic moves in terms of revenue, how they make revenue and how they want to actually sort of complement existing revenue with others or shift from existing to net new. So at this point, we can all sort of like posit thesis and app...
So I just wanted to actually thank everyone once again for joining us on this call today, especially at such short notice. We really do appreciate it. Hopefully, what we've shared and conveyed to you is very clear. And I wish you all a very good day.
What analysts pressed on
Analysts expressed concerns regarding the ongoing audience decline and its potential acceleration, as well as the impact of PPC inflation on margins. There were questions about the visibility of future audience trends and the effectiveness of new product launches in driving revenue.
Main topics on the call
- Audience Decline and PPC Inflation — Management noted that 'audiences have been down in the first half of about minus 20%', leading to a cautious outlook for the second half. PPC costs are reported to be 'double digit higher year-on-year', impacting profita...
- Growth from Strategic Initiatives — Future plc is seeing growth from strategic initiatives, particularly the AI visibility advertising product, Future Optics, which has a 'good GBP 10 million pipeline for this year'. The acquisition of SheerLuxe is also ou...
- Resilience in Magazines and Go.Compare — The Magazines segment is described as 'very resilient', while Go.Compare has returned to growth in March, driven by car insurance. Management expects Go.Compare to continue growing in H2.
- Cautious Guidance for H2 — Management has revised guidance to reflect a continued decline in audience metrics, stating, 'we're now planning for audience to decline going forward instead of stabilizing in H2'. This caution reflects ongoing volatili...
Read the full Future plc transcript (March 31, 2026) → Summary generated from the call transcript; every figure above is stated by management on the record.
About Future plc
Future plc (FUTR) is a publicly listed company in the Media industry, within the Communication Services sector. It trades on LSE and is based in GB. EarningsCalls.dev maintains a free, full-text archive of its earnings call transcripts — 21 calls on record spanning February 6, 2020 to May 14, 2026. Every transcript is split into speaker-by-speaker segments with headline metrics, free to read or available through our REST API.
Earnings Call History
EarningsCalls.dev has 21 Future plc earnings call transcripts on record, spanning February 6, 2020 to May 14, 2026. Based on this history, Future plc reports semi-annually. The most recent call on file is dated May 14, 2026. The full list is below — each row opens the complete, free-to-read transcript.
- Ticker
- FUTR
- Exchange
- LSE
- Country
- GB
- Sector
- Communication Services
- Industry
- Media
- Calls on record
- 21
- First call
- February 6, 2020
- Most recent
- May 14, 2026
- Reporting cadence
- semi-annually