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News Corp. (NWS) issued its fiscal second-quarter report on Wednesday after the bell. The stock rose 2.5% to $17.51 on active volume by the end of the regular session. The reaction in the after-hours session was, to be honest, dreadfully boring. The shares finished up fractionally to $17.55 at the conclusion of that trading period. Guess the market wasn't too impressed by the earnings news; either that, or it figured that the rise before the posting of the numbers was good enough.
According to the corporate press release, adjusted net income calculated out to 29 cents per share in Q2. That was four pennies above the year-ago profit. Marketwatch says that the 29-cent figure was one penny ahead of the overall estimate.
Going through the release, I see that the segment devoted to cable network programming continues to do well; its operating income was $735 million this time around versus $604 million in the comparable three-month frame. The television division saw its profit jump multiple times to $151 million. Unfortunately, the movie department dropped significantly to $189 million from $324 million.
The bigger story surrounding News Corp. may be what it plans to do with MySpace. Will the conglomerate sell the asset? It should, in my opinion. Some investors may be more focused on the launch of a tablet newspaper product, but for me, I really want to hear about MySpace's exit from Rupert Murdoch's empire.
As for the stock, well, I feel today as I did back in November when I wrote about the company's first quarter: I'm not so excited about the short-term potential of the shares. Simply put, there may be better trades out there.
Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change without notice.
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