Earnings

News Corp. earnings: 10 cents per share, vs expected EPS of 13 cents

Rupert Murdoch (L) leaves the News Corporation building with his son Lachlan Murdoch (R) on July 21, 2016 in New York City.
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News Corp. reported mixed quarterly earnings on Monday.

The media company posted fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 10 cents per share on $2.23 billion in revenue. Adjusted quarterly sales grew 5 percent from $2.12 billion during the comparable year-ago period.

Analysts expected the global media company to post earnings of 13 cents a share on $2.06 billion in revenue, according to a Thomson Reuters consensus estimate.

The stock was last flat in extended trading.

News Corp.'s news and information services unit, which includes Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, saw year-over-year revenue growth of $13 million or nearly 1 percent. The segment has seen year-over-year declines in revenue in recent quarters.

News Corp. Chief Executive Officer Robert Thomson said in a statement that the company has "made clear progress on our primary goals – to become more digital and more global."

The company also said that digital revenue grew to 23 percent of the unit's total revenue, up from 19 percent in the comparable year-ago period.

Thomson said, however, that "global print ad trends remain challenging at our News and Information Services segment." Advertising revenue for the unit declined 5 percent, which the company partially attributed to "weakness in the print advertising market."

This decline, which included some "$17 million of negative impact from foreign currency fluctuations," was offset by $33 million gained during the extra week in the quarter, News Corp. said.

Within the news and information services segment, digital subscribers to News Corp. U.K.'s The Times and The Sunday Times grew about 6 percent to 182,500. The company said during its earnings call that the British newspapers may have benefited from coverage of the U.K. referendum vote to leave the European Union.

Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp., was recently named chairman and acting CEO of Fox News Channel and Fox Business network following the resignation of Roger Ailes. Murdoch has previously served as executive chairman, chairman and CEO of 21st Century Fox.