MHP blowing the doors off the quarter

Earnings this morning were a barn burner - they beat on both earnings and revenue.

McGraw-Hill Cos., owner of BusinessWeek magazine and the Standard & Poor's ratings and index business, said Tuesday that first-quarter profit nearly doubled on strong results in its financial services and education segments.

Net income leaped to $143.8 million, or 40 cents per share, compared with $74.2 million, or 20 cents per share, in the previous year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting earnings of 31 cents per share.

The current quarter's results included a $10.3 million, or 3 cents per share gain on the sale of a mutual fund data business.

The prior-year's results included a one-time charge of 4 cents per share for the elimination of a stock option program.

Revenue for the quarter rose 14 percent to $1.3 billion from $1.14 billion a year ago. Analysts had estimated sales at $1.24 billion.

And the stock is up over 6% while the rest of the market is struggling.