TEGNA Inc (TGNA) has reported 26.84 percent rise in profit for the quarter ended Sep. 30, 2016. The company has earned $118.68 million, or $0.54 a share in the quarter, compared with $93.57 million, or $0.41 a share for the same period last year. On the other hand, adjusted net income for the quarter stood at $141.37 million, or $0.65 a share compared with $85.24 million or $0.37 a share, a year ago.

Revenue during the quarter grew 13.56 percent to $860.26 million from $757.52 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter contracted 74 basis points over the previous year period to 69.65 percent. Total expenses were 69.34 percent of quarterly revenues, down from 71.21 percent for the same period last year. This has led to an improvement of 187 basis points in operating margin to 30.66 percent.

Operating income for the quarter was $263.77 million, compared with $218.10 million in the previous year period.

However, the adjusted operating income for the quarter stood at $282.08 million compared to $218.10 million in the prior year period. At the same time, adjusted operating margin improved 400 basis points in the quarter to 32.79 percent from 28.79 percent in the last year period.

Gracia Martore, president and chief executive officer, said, “We are very proud of the significant progress we made on all fronts this quarter, which culminated in non-GAAP earnings per share growth of 76 percent, as each of our businesses continues to successfully execute its respective growth strategy. At TEGNA Media, our strong NBC footprint led to record Summer Olympic advertising revenue in the quarter. We also benefited from higher political revenue and a 32 percent increase in retransmission revenue, continuing the strong retransmission growth trajectory we’ve seen over the last several years. Advertising related to congressional and gubernatorial elections in the quarter was up substantially compared to past presidential election years. However, political advertising did not achieve expectations due primarily to substantially lower than anticipated spending in the presidential election. In our Digital Segment, strong results at Cars.com were driven by growth in direct channel revenue as well as the acquisition of DealerRater. CareerBuilder benefited from the acquisitions of Aurico and Workterra augmenting strong product sales as it continues its transition toward SaaS-focused products and services.”