McGraw-Hill Posts Lower 3Q Profit, Sales

NEW YORK (AP) — Plagued by weakness in advertising and the elementary and high school education markets, information-services company McGraw-Hill Cos. said Monday its profit and sales declined in the third quarter.

McGraw-Hill, which publishes textbooks and owns Standard & Poor's, said it earned $336.1 million, or $1.07 per share, marking a 14 percent decline from the same period a year earlier.

But that was still slightly better than the profit of $1.05 per share that analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting.

Revenue declined 8 percent to $1.88 billion, below Wall Street's expectations of $1.94 billion.

The New York company said the quarter was marked by "sharp contrasts" — such as solid growth in the U.S. college and university market but a decline in the elementary-high school market. Education still brought in more than half of the quarter's revenue, $1 billion. But this showed a 12 percent drop from last year, as school districts tightened their budgets amid the recession. At the same time, a "surge in enrollments" in U.S. colleges and universities helped grow the company's higher education segment.