Washington Post Swings into Q4 Loss as it Takes Huge One-Time Charge (WPO)
NYSE: WPO) reported on Friday that it swung into a loss in its fiscal fourth quarter as its bottom line was impacted by huge one-time charge related to a write-down at its Kaplan unit even as overall operating revenue dropped.
However, excluding onetime items, the newspaper and for-profit education company posted a quarterly profit.
Lately, Washington Post has felt intense pressure both on its top-line and bottom-line due to declining advertising revenue in its print business while its namesake newspaper’s circulation is also shrinking.
Moreover, stricter regulatory scrutiny on for- profit education businesses such as Kaplan is also putting pressure on Washington Post’s financials. For the Company, Kaplan has been a cash-cow.
Earlier in September, Washington Post announced that Kaplan will stop enrollments of new students at nine campuses while four of the ground campuses will be merged with the existing ones. At that moment, the Company had said that it will take a charge of $18 million under restructuring costs, which will be linked to asset write-downs and lease and severance obligations, spread between third quarter of 2012 and last quarter of fiscal 2013.
For the fiscal fourth quarter, Washington Post reported a loss of $45.4 million or $6.57 a share, compared to a profit of $61.7 million or $8.03 a share, in the year earlier period. In the recently concluded quarter, the company took $111.6 million charge towards asset impairment linked to Kaplan’s test preparation business and $41.2 million restructuring charges related to education and publishing business.
Stripping out onetime expenses, adjusted earnings came at $10.61 from $8.91, in the same period of last year.
Revenue from its education division, which accounts for most of the company’s top-line, fell 6.3% to $544.4 million. After including restructuring expenses, this division posted an operating loss of $111.9 million compared to a profit of $30.9 million, in the year earlier quarter.
Revenue from cable TV division rose 5.7%, it leaped 32% in TV broadcasting business, dropped 5.8% publishing business , in printing business it plunged 12% to $67.5 million while in online publishing activities, ( washingtonpost.com and Slate), it climbed increased 5% to $33.1 million.
Overall operating revenue fell 0.9% to $1.05 billion.
More Posts by this author
- Will President Obama’s Stance on Sequester Backfire?
- Washington Post Swings into Q4 Loss as it Takes Huge One-Time Charge (WPO)
- Gold Price Settle Lower, Logs Second Straight Weekly Loss
- Market Update After Hours February 22
- Forex Market Update: Dollar Gains Against Euro and Yen
- Stocks Rebound after Two Straight Days of Losses
- Gold Prices Settle Lower; Silver Prices also Fall
 |
Post Written By: Ed Liston
Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.
|
