Earnings Preview: News Corp. (NWSA), Groupon (GRPN) To Post Results Wednesday

News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA) reports its earnings on Wednesday after the bell, and analysts polled by Thompson Reuters forecast the company to report slightly lower third-quarter earnings after ratings took a hit at Fox's TV show "American Idol." Reuters expects the company to report fiscal 2013 third-quarter EPS of 36 cents on revenue of $9.14 billion, compared with a profit of 37 cents per share on revenue of $8.40 billion in the year-ago period. However, News Corp. is expected to book higher quarterly revenue, up 8.8 percent from the same period last year.As one of the largest media and entertainment companies in the world, analysts are also looking forward to the spin-off of the company's publishing division, which is mostly made up of Dow Jones.After Groupon Inc. (Nasdaq: GRPN) posted three straight quarters of earnings flops, analysts are looking to see if the company can get its numbers back on track.The deal-of-the-day website is forecast to book a narrower loss than a year ago when it reports first quarter earnings after the market closes Wednesday. Analysts polled by FactSet are expecting a loss of 1 cent per share, which is up from a loss of 2 cents per share a year ago. Analysts polled by Reuters expected the company to report fiscal 2013 first-quarter EPS of 3 cents on revenue of $588.92 million, compared with a profit of 2 cents a share on revenue of $559.28 million in the year-ago period. Since going public in November 2011, shares have dropped nearly 80 percent of their value in that time, and investors are hoping that its first quarter results can turn that around.