News Corp. Profit Falls On Soft Ad Revenue, But Tops Street

(RTTNews) - News Corp. (NWSA) on Thursday reported a plunge in second-quarter profit, hurt by a four percent drop in revenues while the prior year quarter included some hefty one-time gains. Nonetheless, results for the quarter topped Wall Street estimates. News Corp. shares were up 5 percent in after-hours trade on the Nasdaq.

Lower advertising business, especially in Australia, impacted results for the quarter, the publishing company said in a statement.

This is the second quarter News Corp is releasing results as a separate entity after a spin-off of its entertainment and TV assets into 21st Century Fox.

The company said that while the advertising environment remains volatile, it sees increased digital subscriptions and website traffic at its sites.

The New York-based company posted second-quarter net income to shareholders of $150 million or $0.26 per share, compared with $1.4 billion or $2.42 per share last year.

Results for the prior-year quarter included a gain of $1.3 billion from its November 2012 acquisition of Australian pay TV company Consolidated Media Holdings.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were unchanged from last year at $0.31 per share.

On average, nine analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.20 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

News Corp. publishes newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and owns book publisher HarperCollins, among others.

The company said its revenues for the quarter slid to $2.24 billion from $2.32 billion in the prior year. Eight analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $2.23 billion for the quarter.

Lower advertising business at the News and Information Services segment brought down the segment's revenue by 9 percent from last year. Also there was the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations and the sale of the Dow Jones Local Media Group. This was partly offset by the inclusion of FOX SPORTS Australia and strength in the Digital Real Estate Services and Book Publishing segments.

News Corp. stock closed Thursday at $6.02, up $0.41 or 2.63%, on a volume of about 5 million shares. In after hours, the stock gained $0.83 or 5.18% at $16.85.