Daily Record parent reports increased 3Q earnings, raises guidance

The Dolan Company boosted its revenue guidance for the year and reported $9 million in profit for the third quarter, largely due to strong performance from its subsidiaries that provide legal services.

Minneapolis-based Dolan, parent company of The Daily Record, said Wednesday net income for the third quarter was $9 million, a 54 percent increase over the corresponding quarter in 2009. The company said it earned 30 cents per diluted share in the quarter, up from 20 cents in the third quarter of 2009.

Analysts had been expecting earnings of 27 cents per share for the quarter, which ended Sept. 30.

Based on the results from the quarter, Dolan raised its full-year revenue guidance to $309-$312 million from $307-$310 million.

The Dolan Company has two divisions, business information and professional services. The business information division publishes nearly 60 mainly business and legal newspapers in 21 markets. The professional services division provides specialized services to the legal profession through subsidiaries NDeX, Counsel Press and DiscoverReady.

The stronger revenues were generated from the company’s professional services division, which was up 41 percent over the prior year. NDeX, a provider of mortgage default processing services, received around 99,700 mortgage default files for processing during the quarter. This was an increase of 19.7 percent over the third quarter of 2009, and accounted for $41.2 million in revenue.

“We are pleased with the growth of the Professional Services Division and we continue to work hard to diversify the results of our business, keeping in mind our long-term goals of growth with stability,” James P. Dolan, Dolan Company chairman, chief executive officer and president said in a statement.

In a call with investors, Dolan said he did not expect the current “robo-signing” scandal in the foreclosure industry to affect the company’s mortgage processing business. He said the practices that have plagued other foreclosure processing firms did not occur at NDeX.

“We’re confident in the integrity of our business,” Dolan said.

Revenue for the company’s business information division in the third quarter was $22.1 million, down from the $22.3 million recorded in the third quarter of 2009. Dolan’s acquisition of Federal News Service and revenue from public notice helped offset declines in traditional advertising.

The Dolan Company announced Tuesday it had formed a partnership with Telran Inc. to launch a real-time legislative reporting and data service.

Dolan told investors he would not rule out making other acquisitions if it made sense for the company’s bottom line.

“It’s a pretty good time to be a funded buyer with a strategy,” he said.