Pearson 1Q Sales Fall

By Simon Zekaria

LONDON--Pearson PLC (PSON.LN), the U.K.-based education specialist, Friday posted a fall in first-quarter sales, but said it is trading in line with its expectations.

The company said sales on an adjusted basis in the first three months of the year fell 6% year-over-year. On an adjusted basis, sales fell 4%, hit by weakness in the U.S. and U.K. At constant exchange rates, sales fell 9%.

It continues to expect to report adjusted operating profit between GBP580 million ($849 million) and GBP620 million and adjusted earnings per share between 50 pence and 55 pence for 2016.

"Pearson has had a solid start to the year, in line with our expectations," said Chief Executive John Fallon.

The company proposed a final dividend of 34 pence a share, giving a total dividend of 52 pence for 2015, up 2% year-over-year.

At the start of this year, Pearson launched fresh cost-savings program worth half a billion dollars and axed 10% of its workforce world-wide to absorb the impact of trading pressures across its key markets, including the U.S.

News Corp. (NWS), which owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, competes with Pearson's book publishing and education divisions.

Shares closed Thursday at 815 pence, valuing the company at GBP6.69 billion.

Write to Simon Zekaria at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 29, 2016 02:40 ET (06:40 GMT)

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