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Meredith (MDP) to Report Q1 Earnings: What's in Store?

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Meredith Corporation , one of the leading media and marketing companies with interests in publishing, broadcasting, integrated marketing and interactive media, is scheduled to report first-quarter fiscal 2017 results on Oct 27.

In the previous quarter, the company posted a positive earnings surprise of 3.9%. Notably, the company surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, with an average earnings surprise of 6.2%. Let’s see how things are shaping up prior to this announcement.

Zacks Model Shows Unlikely Earnings Beat

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Meredith is likely to beat earnings estimates this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. Meredith has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% as both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate stand at 72 cents. The company carries a Zacks Rank #3, which increases the predictive power of ESP but an ESP of 0.00% makes surprise prediction difficult.

Factors Influencing This Quarter

Favorable advertising trends in the digital section and recent acquisitions continue to positively influence the company’s performance. Meredith is focused on bolstering advertising revenues, primarily in the digital space, and is increasingly concentrating on brand licensing, marketing services and eCommerce. The company anticipates strong political advertising cycle as well as higher retransmission revenues and robust digital advertising revenue growth to drive its performance higher in fiscal 2017.

First-quarter fiscal 2017 earnings per share are predicted to be in the range of 70 cents to 75 cents compared with earnings of 52 cents reported in the prior-year quarter.

However, with advancing technology, the print media is on a decline. Shift to online is likely to put enormous pressure on Meredith’s magazine portfolio. Though the company is expanding its digital presence, it will take time to complete the metamorphosis.

MEREDITH CORP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

MEREDITH CORP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | MEREDITH CORP Quote

Stocks to Consider

Here are some companies that you may want to consider as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat:  

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +10.47% and sports a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

New Media Investment Group Inc. has an Earnings ESP of +35.29% and carries a Zacks Rank #3.

Time Warner Inc. has an Earnings ESP of +1.49% and carries a Zacks Rank #3.

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