S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) reported net income above Wall Street’s expectations for the second quarter. News Corp. is a global media company with operations in film, television, cable programming, satellite television, magazines, and book publishing.

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News Earnings Cheat Sheet for the Second Quarter

Results: Net income for the entertainment company rose to $1.06 billion (42 cents per share) vs. $642 million (24 cents per share) in the same quarter a year earlier. This marks a rise of 64.6% from the year earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 2.4% to $8.97 billion from the year earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: News Corporation reported adjusted net income of 39 cents per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean estimate of 34 cents per share. Analysts were expecting revenue of $8.94 billion.

Quoting Management: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch said: “The significant growth we reported in the quarter in the Cable Network Programming, Television and Filmed Entertainment segments clearly validates our strategy to develop and distribute superior wide-ranging content. I am particularly pleased with the success of our business strategies in spite of the uncertain economic conditions that we continue to face. News Corporation’s commitment to delivering value to our stockholders is unwavering and we will continue to focus on generating superior shareholder returns, as evidenced by our strong year to date earnings and the successful completion of over half of our previously announced share repurchase program.”

Key Stats:

Last quarter’s profit increase breaks a streak of three consecutive quarters of year-over-year profit decreases. In the first quarter, net income fell 4.8% from the year earlier, while the figure dropped 21.9% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year and 23.8% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year.

The company has now topped analyst estimates for the last three quarters. It beat the mark by 3 cents in the first quarter and by 6 cents in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year.

Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. In the first quarter, revenue rose 7.2% to $7.96 billion while the figure rose 10.5% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year from the year earlier.

Looking Forward: Expectations for the third quarter have not changed from 33 cents. The average estimate for the fiscal year is $1.38 per share, falling from $1.39 thirty days ago.

(Company fundamentals provided by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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To contact the reporter on this story: Derek Hoffman at staff.writers@wallstcheatsheet.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Damien Hoffman at editors@wallstcheatsheet.com

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