By: Mark Fitzgerald Shares of Media General Inc. more than doubled within minutes of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) opening Wednesday as investors reacted to yet another company from the battered newspaper industry reported surprisingly positive second-quarter results.
Media General, which trades under the symbol MEG, was priced at $5.07 at about 11:15 a.m. EDT, a gain of $2.72 -- or 115.7%.
Trading in the stock was furious, with volume hitting 2 million shares just two hours into trading. Media General?s normal volume for an entire trading session is just 178,000 shares.
Before markets opened, the parent of The Tampa Tribune and 20 other dailies, reported it had turned a profit of $20.6 million, or 90 cents a share. That compared with a net loss in the second quarter of 2008 of $532.2 million -- nearly all of that due to a non-cash impairment charge on the value of its newspapers.
Media General, which also owns broadcast television stations and consumer online services, reported its newspaper division turned a profit even as advertising revenue slid, chiefly because of the effect of cost-cutting through mass layoffs, mandatory unpaid furloughs and other measures.
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