Money manager Hassan Elmasry must be down in the pits after dumping his New York Times shares.
Yesterday – about a week after Elmasry sold his firm’s 7.2 percent stake at a roughly 10-year low – the Times’ stock price surged 10 percent as strong fashion and movie advertising and cost cuts helped the beleaguered newspaper company post stronger-than-expected profits for the latest quarter.
Elmasry, a manager at Morgan Stanley’s money-management arm, spent the past two years trying to shake up the Sulzberger family control of the newspaper company, which he complained was mismanaging the business.
But he gave up last week and sold 10 million shares for a reported $183 million.
Elmasry could have made an extra $19 million if he’d waited until yesterday to sell, when the Times’ bucked an industry trend and reported surprisingly strong earnings – up nearly 7 percent and more than 4 cents a share than Wall Street was expecting.
The company’s stock gained $1.81 to $20.22 a share.
Elmasry’s move to sell the stake came after he failed to convince the Times’ board to end the dual-class share structure that keeps the family in control.
“He just got totally frustrated,” one source close to Elmasry said.
Some analysts remain gloomy about the Times, indicating Elmasry probably made the right call, despite the stock surge.
“We think September’s 11.3 percent advertising revenue increase at the flagship newspaper is more of an anomaly than trend,” said Lehman Brothers analyst Craig Huber.
Top Times executives said yesterday that the advertising outlook remains murky.