NYT Profits Plunge 85%

Yesterday I noted that the put-call ratio on the stock of the New York Times ($NYT) had soared 30-fold in two days.

It turns out, they were on to something.

Today the NYT reported that its earnings plunged 85%. The stock has been down as much as 15% today.

Profit for the quarter sank to $2.28 million, or two cents a share, from $15.7 million, or 10 cents, a year earlier.

The loss from continuing operations was two cents a share, compared with earnings of five cents a share from continuing operations year ago. Excluding severance and other items, the loss from continuing operations was one cent in the most recent quarter.

Revenue declined 0.6% to $449 million, and operating margin narrowed to 1.9% from 4.7%

Advertising revenue fell 8.9% on a 11% decline in print ad sales. Digital advertising revenue decreased 2.2%.

Circulation revenue rose 7.4%. Paid digital subscriptions across the company were roughly 592,000, an 11% increase from the second quarter.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had most recently forecast earnings of eight cents on revenue of $479 million.

Posted by on October 25th, 2012 at 10:35 am


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