(By Balaseshan) Meredith Corp. (NYSE: MDP), a media and marketing company, said it will take a special charge of $7 million in its second quarter, related to business realignments and selected workforce reductions.
For the second quarter, the company reaffirmed its earnings guidance of $0.85 to $0.90 per share, excluding the special charge, while Street analysts predict $0.87 per share.
For the full-year 2013, Meredith continues to expect earnings of $2.60 to $2.95 per share, excluding the special charge, while Street analysts predict $2.80 per share.
Meredith said it has "aggressively scaled its capabilities" to deliver content over multiple platforms to meet increased consumer demand and growing client requests for multi-platform advertising and marketing programs in the past year.
As a result, Meredith has added or created about 300 jobs to support key strategic growth initiatives including the: acquisition of Allrecipes.com, doubling Meredith's digital presence; addition of the EveryDay with Rachael Ray and FamilyFun brands, among others.
Meredith will update progress on its strategic growth initiatives, as well as its earnings outlook, when it releases second quarter earnings on January 24.
MDP is trading down 1.19% at $34.02 on Friday. The stock has been trading between $26.89 and $37.84 for the past 52 weeks.