Sinclair 1Q net income beats Street
BALTIMORE—TV station operator Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. said Wednesday that its first-quarter net income nearly doubled as it integrated newly acquired TV stations and its local advertising revenue grew.
Net income rose to $29.4 million, or 36 cents per share, from $15.3 million, or 19 cents per share, a year ago.
That beat the 33 cents per share expected by analysts polled by FactSet.
Revenue rose 23 percent to $224 million from $183 million a year ago. That also beat the $221 million expected by analysts.
Existing Sinclair stations increased core net broadcast revenue 9.2 percent when excluding political and Super Bowl revenue.
In January, Sinclair completed the $200 million acquisition of Four Points Media's seven TV stations. After the first quarter ended, in April, it bought eight TV stations from Freedom Communications for $385 million. Sinclair now owns, operates, programs or provides sales services to 74 TV stations in 45 markets.
For a key metric known as net broadcast revenue from continuing operations before bartered commercial time, Sinclair said it expects that to range from $211.2 million to $212.2 million in the current quarter, with barter revenue of $24.2 million.
Shares were up 19 cents, or 1.8 percent, at $10.51 in afternoon trading Wednesday.
