Sinclair shares jump after 4th-quarter results; company sees auto ad spending improve

Sinclair Broadcast shares climb after 4Q results

BALTIMORE — Shares of Sinclair Broadcast Group rose 5 percent Wednesday after the television broadcasting company posted a smaller fourth-quarter loss.

The company said the quarter finished stronger than expected due mainly to improving advertising spending by the auto industry.

Sinclair posted a net loss of $67.8 million, or 85 cents per share, compared with a loss of $283.5 million, or $3.46 per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Excluding impairment charges, the company earned 24 cents in the latest quarter, compared with adjusted earnings of 23 cents per share in the fourth quarter 2008.

Revenue, slid 7 percent to $183.3 million from $196 million.

Analysts, on average, were expecting a profit of 17 cents per share, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters. Analysts typically exclude one-time items from their estimates.

For the full year, Sinclair posted a loss of $135.7 million, or $1.70 per share, compared with a loss of $246.5 million, or $2.87 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings were 66 cents per share in 2009.

Revenue fell 13 percent to $656.5 million.

For the first quarter 2010, the company said it expects net broadcast revenues to be “up by low double digit percents.”

“We continue to see strengthening of many of our advertising categories, in particular automotive, which we expect to be up almost 20 percent in the first quarter 2010, as compared to the same period last year, said David Smith, president and CEO, in a statement.

Shares of Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. rose 27 cents to $5.78 in early afternoon trading. Earlier, the stock hit a 52-week high of $6.20.