DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- International Speedway Corp. said Thursday it posted a $1 million third-quarter loss, hurt by a double-digit drop in revenue stemming from the shifting of race dates and a continued drop in ticket sales stemming from the sluggish economy.
The motorsports company also said it now expects its fiscal 2012 earnings to fall short of its previous prediction. Its shares tumbled more than 10 percent in afternoon trading.
For the quarter ended Aug. 31, the motorsports company's loss amounted to 2 cents per share and compared with a profit of $9.7 million, or 20 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
Excluding carrying costs related to certain property and charges stemming from a drop in some of its assets, International Speedway said it posted an adjusted profit of $646,000, or 1 cent per share, for the recent quarter.
The adjusted profit fell well short of Wall Street predictions. Analysts, on average, expected a profit of 8 cents per share, according to a FactSet poll.
Revenue fell 23 percent to $115.9 million from $150.3 million, as ticket sales dropped 28 percent to $26.1 million.
The company said that adjusted for schedule changes, mainly related to the timing of the NASCAR weekend at Kansas Speedway and a NASCAR event it no longer promotes, revenue fell about 3 percent from prior-year levels.
International Speedway said it now expects its 2012 profit to fall short of its previous estimate of $1.50 per share. It also said it now expects revenue of around $610 million, which had previously been the bottom of its projected revenue range of $610 million to $630 million.
Analysts polled by FactSet expect a profit of $1.51 per share on $621.4 million in revenue.
International Speedway shares fell $2.84, or 10 percent, to $25.61 in afternoon trading, after falling as low as $25 earlier in the day. Over the past 52 weeks, the company's shares have traded between $20.08 and $29.30.