Meredith (MDP) Hits 52-Week High: What's Driving The Stock?

Shares of Meredith Corporation (NYSE:MDP) scaled a 52-week high of $53.37 on Jul 6, before eventually closing at $53.05. Notably, the stock has gained 22.7% year to date and more than 17% over the past three months. Interestingly, the company’s shares have gained nearly 10% following its better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter earnings results announced on Apr 28.

Meredith has been impressing investors with its consistently better-than-expected earnings performance over the last ten quarters. Management raised fiscal 2016 earnings guidance based on sturdy performance in the first nine months of the fiscal year. Meredith now expects earnings per share in the range of $3.25–$3.30, up from the previous guidance of around $3.05–$3.25.

Also, the company’s, estimates have been revised upward after the robust fiscal third-quarter results. In the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2016 and 2017 has moved up by 11 cents and 3 cents to $3.27 and $3.69, respectively.

Moreover, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company has been making strategic investments as well as undertaking acquisitions and partnership deals in order to expand its media portfolio. Some of the important buyouts in fiscal 2015 include Shape magazine and the digital assets of Shape, Natural Health, and Fit Pregnancy brands from American Media Inc. The company integrated Shape with its Fitness magazines. It also revamped few magazines in its portfolio, such as Family Circle, MORE, Wood Eat This, Not That!, and Parents Latina.

Acquiring the rights to Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Weddings magazines and www.marthastewart.com and www.marthastewartweddings.com websites proved to be lucrative. These apart, the company acquired ad technology firm, Selectable Media. In addition, Meredith redesigned and re-launched sites like bhg.com and Agriculture.com and launched several new apps like Allrecipes Dinner Spinner. The company also launched Meredith Women's Network, which mostly covers women-related topics. Meredith completed the buyout of Qponix, a leading shopper marketing data platform technology.

Apart from Meredith, other stocks such as Kellogg Company (NYSE:K) , Leggett & Platt, Incorporated (NYSE:LEG) and Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE:CL) also hit 52-week highs of $83.19, $51.48 and $73.71, respectively, on Jul 7.