Madison Square Garden Beats Views
NEW YORK (
) --
Madison Square Garden
(MSG) - Get The Madison Square Garden Co. Report
shares added nearly 4% on heavy volume Friday after the company released better-than-expected second-quarter results.
Before Friday's opening bell, the company said it swung to a profit in the quarter with earnings of $14 million, or 18 cents a share, well ahead of the Wall Street consensus target of 6 cents a share. A year ago, Madison Squarter Garden, which operates the famous arena on New York's 34th Street, lost $3.9 million, or 5 cents a share.
MSG said its revenue in the quarter rose 9.5% to $227 million from $207.3 million a year ago. Revenue from its media segment was up 18.2% to $134.5 million, while its entertainment segment saw its top line grow by 14%.
For the first half of the year, earnings swung to a profit of $31.4 million, or 41 cents a share, compared with a loss of $5.8 million, or 8 cents a share, in the same period a year ago.
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Revenue rose 9.2% to $533.6 million from $488.7 million, driven by an 18.1% increase in its media revenue and an 11.6% increase in its entertainment revenue.
"The transformation of Madison Square Garden into a state-of-the-art facility is now underway and we remain confident that the transformed arena will further enhance our growth profile in the years ahead," said CEO Hank Ratner in a satement.
Madison Square Garden shares finished trading Friday at $20.17, up 3.65%, on volume of about 1.4 million shares, nearly four times the daily average.
-- Reported by Theresa McCabe in Boston.
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Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors and reporters from holding positions in any individual stocks.
