Sharewatch: Highbury Battered By Poor Week’s Trading
A poor week of trading left many media stocks looking bruised and battered in week on week analysis. Consumer magazine publisher Highbury House was one of the worst affected, with share price tumbling by 7.46% to 15˝p on Friday, despite optimism over pre-tax profits for the first half of 2004.
Friday saw the company announce that pre-tax profits for the first six months of this year would be up by around 27% year-on-year. The company claimed that expected improvements in advertising revenue had encouraged the rise (see Highbury House Profits Expected To Rise By 27%).
Elsewhere in the magazine sector, Future Publishing suffered a 4% slip in share price, halting at 60p. Last week the company announced the centenary edition of its leading creative magazine, Computer Arts. The title will receive special edition covers and promotions to celebrate the event, despite poor performance, losing 23.8% of its circulation year on year during 2003.
Internet giant Cable & Wireless was also hampered, dropping 7.49% to rest at 108p on Friday as the company revealed disappointing first quarter revenues owing to a weaker than expected UK performance.
The closing prices of media company shares on Friday were:
