(By Balaseshan) E.W. Scripps Co. (NYSE: SSP), a media company, reported a jump in quarterly earnings and revenue, though results missed Street's expectations.
Earnings for the fourth quarter were $27.19 million or $0.47 per share, up from $6.29 million or $0.11 per share last year.
Revenue jumped 32% to $259.75 million. The latest quarter included revenue from television stations in Indianapolis, Denver, San Diego and Bakersfield that were acquired on Dec. 30, 2011. Excluding the new stations from the 2012 performance, revenue increased 14% to $225 million.
Analysts, on average, polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a profit of $0.56 per share on revenue of $260.21 million for the fourth quarter.
Revenue from television stations soared 79.4% to $152 million. On a same-station basis, television revenue climbed 39% in the quarter to $118 million.
Total revenue from Scripps newspapers declined 4.6% to $105 million, due to lower revenue from circulation, and print advertising.
Looking ahead into the first quarter, the company expects television revenue to be flat and newspaper revenue to be down in the low- to mid-single digits.
For the full year 2013, the company predicts television revenues to be down in the high-single digits due to the political off-year and television expenses to be up slightly. Newspaper revenues and expenses are anticipated to decline at a low-single-digit rate.
SSP closed Monday's regular session at $11.35. The stock has been trading between $8.19 and $11.69 for the past 52 weeks.