The shares of Daily Mail & General Trust (LSE: DMGT) gained 4p to 792p during early trade this morning after the media conglomerate said monthly unique visits to its MailOnline website had rallied 30% to 138 million during August.
Daily Mail, which alongside printing the Daily Mail newspaper stages various industry exhibitions as well as supplying data to the insurance industry, confirmed MailOnline’s progress within a year-end trading update.
The update revealed total sales had climbed 2% on an underlying basis and that annual profits would be in line with City expectations.
The group helpfully stated broker forecasts ranged from £259m to £282m and adjusted earnings ranged from 50.1p to 55p per share, with a consensus of £270m and 52.1p per share respectively.
Daily Mail admitted its newspapers had seen underlying circulation revenues drop 4% and underlying advertising revenues drop 8% during the eleven months to August.
However, advertising sales at MailOnline surged 45% and rallied a combined 21% at other group websites such as Wowcher.
Following this morning’s market reaction to the statement, Daily Mail shares trade at 15.2 times the aforementioned City consensus earnings estimate. They may also yield a potential 2.4% income if a projected 19.3p per share dividend proves to be accurate.
