UMG Reported a 5.3% Increase in Revenue — So Why Did Its Stock Drop 25%?

The company's share price plummeted in the wake of its earnings release. Billboard analyzes the reasons behind the dip.

By

Ed Christman

In the aftermath of its mid-year earnings report on Thursday (July 30), the Universal Music Group (UMG) stock got hammered, with its share price decreasing a shocking 25.4% — from 19.35 euros on Thursday to 14.44 euros on Friday (July 31). On Monday (Aug. 3), the stock dipped slightly lower to 14.35 euros before ticking back up to close at 14.93 euros on Aug. 4.

Even though UMG produced healthy revenue growth, increasing revenue by 5.3% (10.8% in constant currency) to 6.194 billion euros ($7.236 billion) — up from 5.881 billion euros ($6.694 billion) in the first half of 2025 — the company’s share price was undone by other factors. Those included a steep decline in net profitability, which fell by over $1 billion, and by investor expectations that the company would at least be in the ballpark of analysts’ consensus for overall revenue growth and the more closely watched metric of subscription streaming growth.