Gannett (GCI) Tops Q4 EPS by 2c
Gannett (NYSE: GCI) reported Q4 EPS of $1.02, $0.02 better than the analyst estimate of $1.00. Revenue for the quarter came in at $1.7 billion versus the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion.
Gracia Martore, president and chief executive officer, said, “Our strong fourth quarter results cap a milestone year for Gannett - reflecting our bold strategy and continued focus on reshaping and reinventing the company to accelerate growth in today’s multi-platform media landscape. Based on our strong operating performance and balance sheet strength, we are resuming our share buyback program, well ahead of the timeline we had previously anticipated. Our broader and more diverse footprint drove record revenue in Broadcasting for the fourth consecutive quarter and resulted in our highest political revenues ever in a non-presidential election year. We also posted record-breaking Digital Segment revenues, driven by our full ownership of Cars.com, which had a terrific quarter, as well as continued growth at CareerBuilder. On the Publishing side, we continue to innovate and find ways to deepen our connections with our audiences and advertisers through initiatives like USA TODAY local content editions, which have delighted customers and substantially exceeded our revenue expectations. Even as we achieved this tremendous revenue growth, we remain committed to operating as efficiently as possible, which has continued to improve profitability, including a 57 percent increase in Adjusted EBITDA as compared to the fourth quarter last year.”
Martore continued, “The terrific progress we’ve made across each of our businesses since the launch of our transformation plan three years ago culminated in our biggest news of 2014 - the announcement of our plan to separate into two highly focused public companies. Each company will be a leader in its respective industry with impressive scale and greater freedom to focus its strategy and resources on the most promising, value-enhancing areas of the business. We are on track with the separation and will share more details of our plans for the Publishing and Broadcasting/Digital companies in the coming months.”
For earnings history and earnings-related data on Gannett (GCI) click here.
