Gannett's Q2 Results Fail To Cheer investors

Gannett Co. Inc. GCI reported its second quarter results that failed to cheer investors as both its adjusted earnings and revenue came in below the expectations.

The results come on the heels of its completion of the acquisition of North Jersey Media Group and Journal Media Group apart from the intended acquisition of ReachLocal RLOC.

The company reported adjusted net income of $36.14 million or $0.30 a share, down from $53.95 million or $0.47 a share in the previous year quarter. The EPS was $0.01 below the analysts' estimations of $0.31. Its GAAP net income also dipped to $12.27 million from $53.33 million in the comparable period.

Its total operating revenues grew to $748.79 million from $727.07 million in the year-ago quarter and came in below the analysts' predictions of $768.47 million.

President and CEO, Robert Dickey, said, "By the end of the third quarter, we expect that annualized revenues acquired in the last twelve months will be more than $800 million, and the annualized digital component of our revenues will approach $1 billion. Additionally, we continue to pursue cost improvement initiatives in our core operations as well as recently acquired assets, particularly in the printing, packaging and distribution channel."

Moving ahead, Gannett revised its full year outlook and now expects YOY revenue growth for the second half of the current year to be 7–9 percent. The company reminded that the third quarter tends to be a seasonally slower revenue quarter while the fourth quarter is generally the best revenue quarter of the year.

At time of writing, the stock traded down 2.51 percent to $14.00 in the pre-market on Wednesday.