Shaw Communications shares sink despite better-than-expected 2Q earnings

Shares of Shaw Communications (TSE:SJR.B) (NYSE:SJR) sank on Tuesday, despite the company releasing better-than-expected 2Q earnings.

Earnings for the Calgary based communications and media company grew to US$116.37 million, or US$0.23 per share, for the second quarter ending Feb 28, 2019, up from a net loss of US$131.39 million in the same period a year ago. Wall Street analysts had predicted earnings per share of US$0.22 cents for the quarter. 

However, revenue figures disappointed, sending shares down 3.2% at C$26.89 in Toronto and down on 3.4% at US$20.19 in New York on Tuesday afternoon. 

Shaw reported weaker-than-expected revenue, US$988.05 million in the second quarter, a drop from US$997.81 million in the second quarter of 2018. Analysts had predicted revenue of US$1.01 billion for the period.

“We continue to make progress on our strategic priorities and journey to a modern Shaw. Second quarter results include stable Wireline performance, improved broadband execution and solid subscriber growth in our Wireless business. While we still have lots of work ahead of us, our second quarter and year-to-date results reflect improvement on all these initiatives, combined with a meaningful reduction in our cost structure that resulted in strong margin performance in the quarter,” said CEO Brad Shaw.

Contact Katie Lewis at [email protected]. 

Story by ProactiveInvestors