Earnings call transcript: CyberAgent Inc Q4 2025 sees strong growth, stock dips

CyberAgent Inc (TYO:4751) reported robust financial performance for the fourth quarter of 2025, continuing its streak of 28 consecutive years of sales growth. Despite this achievement, the company’s stock experienced a slight dip in the market, closing down 0.45% at 1,562.5 yen. The company highlighted significant progress in its media and IP business, achieving profitability after a decade, and reported strong performance in its gaming division.

Key Takeaways

• CyberAgent achieved profitability in its media and IP business after 10 years.
• The company launched 7 new games in FY 2025, including successful titles like Gundam Shadow Verse.
• Stock price decreased by 0.45% in post-earnings trading.
• Overseas game sales reached 20 billion yen in a single quarter.
• Strategic leadership transition announced with Yamauchi set to become the next president.

Company Performance

CyberAgent’s performance in Q4 2025 underscored its resilience and adaptability in a rapidly changing market environment. The company reported the second-highest operating profit in its fiscal year, driven by strong results across its diverse business segments. The gaming sector performed particularly well, with international sales contributing significantly to the quarterly results. The media and IP divisions, long seen as a potential growth area, finally turned profitable, marking a significant milestone for the company.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: Not specified in the summary, but overall sales growth reported.
• Earnings per share: Not specified in the summary.
• Operating Profit: Achieved second-highest in fiscal year.
• Overseas game sales: 20 billion yen in one quarter.

Market Reaction

The stock price of CyberAgent Inc fell by 0.45% to 1,562.5 yen following the earnings announcement. This movement reflects a cautious market sentiment despite the company’s strong financial performance. The stock remains well within its 52-week range, with a high of 1,933 yen and a low of 970.1 yen, indicating that investors are weighing the company’s growth prospects against broader market conditions.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking ahead, CyberAgent is focused on expanding its media and IP business and continuing its growth in the gaming sector. The company is also leveraging AI opportunities to enhance its marketing and advertising strategies. An operating profit forecast for FY 2026 was presented as a range, reflecting the company’s strategic focus on flexibility and adaptability in the face of market changes.

Executive Commentary

Fujita, President of CyberAgent, emphasized the company’s consistent growth trajectory, stating, "We have continued to grow steadily for 28 consecutive years." He also highlighted the transformative impact of AI on the market, noting, "AI is dramatically changing the market environment." Looking to the future, Fujita expressed optimism, saying, "We hope to create a solid foundation and continue to generate new hits."

Risks and Challenges

• Market Saturation: As CyberAgent expands its gaming and media divisions, it faces the risk of market saturation, which could impact future growth.
• AI Integration: While AI presents opportunities, integrating these technologies effectively across business operations poses a challenge.
• Competitive Pressure: The company must navigate intense competition within the gaming industry, both domestically and internationally.
• Leadership Transition: The upcoming change in leadership could introduce strategic shifts that may affect company performance.
• Macro-Economic Factors: Global economic conditions, including currency fluctuations and trade policies, could impact CyberAgent’s financial outcomes.

This comprehensive overview of CyberAgent’s Q4 2025 earnings call highlights the company’s achievements and challenges, offering insights into its strategic direction and market positioning.

Full transcript - CyberAgent Inc (4751) Q4 2025:

Fujita, President, CyberAgent: We would like to begin CyberAgent’s FY 2025 four-year earnings briefing. This earnings briefing is being streamed. With respect to the content we will be sharing with you today, please refer to the disclaimer contained within the presentation material. President Fujita will take us through the earnings results. I’m President Fujita. I would like to take you through the four-year earnings briefing for FY 2025. First of all, this is the overall results. Overall, this fiscal year we did well. We did make an upward revision, but we even surpassed the upward revision. OP increased considerably, and sales grew for the 28th consecutive year. Individually, media and IP business, since ABEMA was launched, we have been investing quite significantly in ABEMA, but for the first time in 10 years, OP achieved profitability.

IP business has been a focal area, but we have continued to make investments in this area as well, and we are making progress. With respect to the advertising business, we did see a large client leave. However, overall, we have continued to expand this business. OP, we had a little bit of a difficulty, but we are implementing measures. With respect to the game business, we released seven new games this fiscal year, and multiple games became a new hit. OP grew dramatically as well due to other payment options. This is a graph of our 28 consecutive year sales growth. For the 25 fiscal years, ever since we went public for 28 consecutive years, we have continued to grow steadily. We have booked the second highest OP this fiscal year, especially Umamusume, was a huge hit.

We even recovered from the huge hit that Umamusume was in the past. With respect to SG&A expenses, our performance outpaced our plans, so we did pay out a special bonus at the end of the fiscal year. These are the number of employees. We have continued to increase the number of employees as we have done in the past. This is the P&L. We have continued to invest for ABEMA for a long time, but the profitability has improved. Net income, we are seeing a great performance in terms of net income. There is nothing noteworthy about the balance sheet. Now I would like to take you through the FY 2026 forecast. We will be presenting an OP forecast as a range. 2026 first quarter, November, is the first quarter.

The game business is doing well at the moment, but it’s quite difficult to forecast a year from now. At the moment, we are going to present an OP range. Moving on to the individual businesses. First, starting with media and IP business. This has continued to expand powerfully. We have done JPY 231.5 billion, so it’s gotten to quite a sizable business. I already mentioned this during the highlights, but media and IP sector has achieved profitability after 10 years since ABEMA’s launch, and we have invested quite significantly in this area, but we have achieved profitability. These are the results by quarter. If you look at the OP by quarter, this is how it looks. This is the trends in WAU. In recent months, we have focused on original programs. Our own IP has high value.

Many people watch them, so we believe that the quality of our original program has continued to improve. Variety programs, this fiscal year did very well, and WAU has doubled year over year, so it’s a huge improvement. Time for chance, and there are a couple of IPs that we have nurtured since ABEMA was launched, and they’ve become big hits. Also, we have new programs as well that are doing well. We are working on dramas as well, and we believe that the quality of each drama has become even higher. We will be releasing a new series, Scandal Eve, and we have high expectations for this. This will be released on the 19th of next week. We have strengthened our Disney Plus, WOWOW, DAZN, Green Channel, and Downtown Plus as well. We’ve actually worked on fortifying our external partnerships to gain more membership.

Overall, Anime Studio KURM was established in November. We have high expectations for that, and we have a very wide range, a great lineup of IP studios. We wanted to establish a framework where we can come up with our own original work and monetize, but we want to, of course, use ABEMA as a central axis and continue to expand this business. Moving on to the internet advertising business. We did lose a large client halfway through the year, but overall, we continue to expand powerfully. We are still expanding. On the other hand, OP is not growing as strongly in this industry as well. AI is dramatically changing the market, the environment. We are actively investing in AI and new business as well. We lost a high-profit business. We want to implement various measures.

We have been implementing various measures to improve our profitability. We hope that those initiatives will bear fruit going forward. These are the trends by quarter. This is the quarterly OP. Internet ad business as well. AI, we’re seeing significant changes due to AI. We hope to transform this into a growth opportunity as well. We are implementing various initiatives to take advantage of this opportunity, especially from search to Gen AI users. Behavior is changing. That is a key area that we are focusing on. We’re making sure that we’re addressing this change as well. We are establishing new marketing methods, advertising methods. Moving on to the game business. With respect to the game business, we have overcome the impact from Umamusume. And new hit games as well.

We released many of them towards the end of the year, latter half of the year, but they have become great hits. We are seeing this very clean growth trajectory. OP has year-on-year doubled. We have seen significant increases in OP. This is the results by quarter. OP trends by quarter is on this page. In 2025, we released seven new games. Gundam Shadow Verse, Umamusume, English version have done very well, became huge hits. We are actually increasingly producing more hits. Our hit rate is increasing. Overseas sales has gotten to JPY 20 billion in one quarter. Times four would be JPY 80 billion. It has become quite a large size. Over the mid to long term, internet ad business is stably growing, and the media and IP business has become profitable.

We hope to create a solid foundation and continue to generate new hits with games and build a highly profitable business model. We would like to continue with this strategy. Lastly, we have announced today that the president, a new president, will be appointed at the General Shareholders’ Meeting next month. That president, we would like to pass a baton to Yamauchi as the next president. The reason being, we have the OMedia interview as well as the blog, and you will be able to understand why we are making this change if you can watch and read this content. Please take a look when they become available. This concludes my explanation. Thank you very much. This concludes FY 2025 four-year earnings briefing for CyberAgent. Should you have any questions, please reach out to the IR team. Thank you for watching today.

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