By: Mark Fitzgerald By handily beating Wall Street expectations with its second-quarter earnings report Tuesday, The McClatchy Co. set off a stampede for shares of The Sacramento Bee parent.
Just after noon Eastern time, McClatchy stock (NYSE: MNI) was trading up 22 cents to 76 cents -- a 41.7% leap.
Trading in McClatchy was furious through the morning, reaching a volume of 4.99 million shares at noon -- four time the average volume for an entire trading session.
McClatchy posted earnings of $42.2 million, or 50 cents per share, more than double its year-ago earnings and its first-quarter 2009 results.
While advertising revenue slid 30%, McClatchy Chairman and CEO Gary Pruitt told analysts that the rate of decline in ad revenue slowed with every month of the quarter, and that July was shaping up to be much like June.
"Our company remains profitable and each of our newspapers is contributing positive cash flow," Pruitt declared.
Excluding asset sales and other unusual items, McClatchy says earnings would have come to $25.2 million, or 30 cents per share.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who typically exclude special items, expected a loss of 8 cents per share.
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