Meredith Corp. (MDP), a media and marketing company serving American women, Tuesday reported a decline in profit for the second quarter as advertising revenues took a beating. Nonetheless, earnings for the quarter topped Street estimates, while revenues fell short of expectations. Meredith also forecast a weak outlook for the third quarter, but tightened its guidance for the full year 2012.
In a separate release, Meredith said it has agreed to acquire Allrecipes.com from Reader's Digest Association Inc. for $175 million, in a move to ramp up its digital presence. Meredith expects the deal to be slightly accretive to earnings per share in fiscal 2013, while expecting a dilution in earnings per share for 2012.
Des Moines, Iowa-based Meredith reported second-quarter net income of $31.6 million or $0.70 per share, compared to $40.5 million or $0.88 per share a year ago.
On average, seven analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.67 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Meredith reported second-quarter revenue of $329 million, a decline from $366 million last year. Analysts expected revenues of $342.20 million for the quarter.
Local Media Group revenues slid to $84 million from $97 million in the prior year, due to lower political advertising revenues amid an off-election year.
National Media Group revenues declined to $244 million from $268 million last year, due to lower patronage from food and consumer packaged goods producers, as also pharmaceutical firms.
Meredith said online orders for print magazine subscriptions nearly doubled to more than 500,000 from last year.
For the third quarter, Meredith expects earnings of $0.65 to $0.70 per share. Analysts currently expect earnings of $0.71 per share for the third quarter.
For 2012, the company has now forecast earnings of $2.55 to $2.75 per share, compared to its prior outlook of $2.40 to $2.80 per share. Analysts currently expect earnings of $2.63 per share for the quarter.
Both the third quarter and full year estimates exclude the anticipated effects of the Allrecipes.com acquisition.
Separately, Meredith said its $175 million Allrecipes.com acquisition will close later in this quarter. Meredith expects the acquisition of the digital food site and business seasonality to result in a slight dilution - about $0.10 per share - to its fiscal 2012 results. Allrecipes.com currently has a database of over 500,000 recipes. Its U.S. audience is 70 percent female.
MDP is trading at $31.05, down $0.56 or 1.72%, on the NYSE.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Business News
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.