News Corp. Q3 Earnings Beat Street

(RTTNews) - News Corp. (NWS, NWSA), the company owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, Tuesday said its third-quarter earnings and revenues trumped Wall Street's expectations.

The New York-based media company reported a third-quarter loss of $5 million or $0.01 per share, compared to a loss of $149 million or $0.26 per share last year.

Adjusted earnings were $39 million or $0.07 per share, up from $25 million or $0.04 per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.05 per share.

Revenues for the quarter rose to $1.98 billion from $1.89 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.86 billion.

Revenue at key news and information services segment, which includes Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, rose 3 percent from a year ago to $1.26 billion. Among smaller segments, book publishing rose 4 percent; digital real estate jumped 13 percent, and cable network programming gained 14 percent.

Chief Executive Robert Thomson said, "In the third quarter, we saw particular progress in our quest to be more digital and global, while there was tangible improvement in operating efficiencies. We posted solid revenue growth and substantial earnings growth, highlighted by momentum in Digital Real Estate Services, where realtor.com® continued to expand traffic, revenue and profitability."

Digital revenues increased to 24 percent of News and Information Services segment revenues, compared to 23 percent last year. The company said that the Wall Street Journal's average daily digital subscribers rose to 1.20 million, up from 893,000 year over year.

News Corp separated itself in 2013 after Rupert Murdoch spun off its more profitable entertainment and TV assets into Twenty-First Century Fox (FOX, FOXA).

Murdoch's U.S. TV business is currently struggling after a sexual harassment scandal at Fox News.

NWS closed Tuesday's trading at $13.11, up $0.32 or 2.50% on the NYSE. The stock further gained $0.27 or 2.06% in the after-hours trade.