ComScore Shares Retreat After 3Q Results

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of comScore Inc. retreated Friday, a day after the Internet data analysis provider posted third-quarter sales slightly below Wall Street's expectations, hurt by weakness in the advertising market.

The company also said Thursday it plans to lay off about 8 percent of its work force, or roughly 50 people based on Thomson Reuters figures, to shift resources to high-growth areas, where it is hiring workers.

Its shares fell $1.03, or 6.3 percent, to $15.42 in afternoon trading. The stock has traded between $6.63 and $19.58 in the past 52 weeks.

After the market closed Thursday, the company said it earned $945,000, or 3 cents per share, in the July-September period, up from a profit of $575,000, or 2 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue rose 4 percent to $31.9 million from $30.7 million.

Analysts, on average, were expecting a profit of 5 cents per share on sales of $33 million, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.