McGraw-Hill Cos. said Tuesday that its second-quarter profit dropped 23 percent, partly hurt by a restructuring charge related to job cuts.

The company, which publishes textbooks and owns BusinessWeek magazine and Standard & Poor's, managed to report adjusted results that beat Wall Street's expectations.

But the publisher also lowered the high end of its full-year adjusted profit guidance and reduced its sales outlook, somewhat muting investor enthusiasm.

Its stock fell 6 cents to close at $33.10.

McGraw-Hill, earned $164.1 million, or 52 cents per share, for the period ended June 30. That's off from $212.3 million, or 66 cents per share, a year ago.

The current quarter's results included a $24.3 million restructuring charge related to about 550 jobs cuts that occurred earlier this month. That was somewhat offset by a $9.1 million reversal for changes in severance estimates. Including 3 cents per share for the sale of Vista Research, total quarterly charges were 6 cents per share.

Taking out these items, profit was 58 cents per share.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, whose estimates normally exclude one-time items, expected a profit of 55 cents per share.

The company, which has been hit by declines in its education, financial services and media properties, is considering selling BusinessWeek. The magazine has struggled as it contends with both the recession and a shift of readers to the Internet, with ad pages for its global edition down 34.3 percent during the quarter.

Revenue fell 12 percent to $1.47 billion from $1.67 billion to miss Wall Street's forecast of $1.54 billion.

"Strength in U.S. higher education, the global corporate bond market and at Platts, our worldwide energy information service, were offset by softness in the elementary-high school market, structured finance and advertising in the second quarter," Chairman, President and CEO Harold McGraw III said in a statement.

The company's school education group reported a 22.7 percent revenue decline on difficult comparisons and the faltering elementary to high school market. At Standard & Poor's revenue fell 9.9 percent for credit market services, which provides independent credit ratings, credit risk evaluations and ratings-related information and products. S&P's investment services arm, which offers financial data, information, investment indices and research, posted a 4.9 percent revenue drop.

McGraw-Hill lowered the high end of its full-year adjusted profit forecast and reduced its sales outlook on softening advertising and school education conditions.

It now expects adjusted earnings of $2.20 to $2.25 per share. Prior guidance was for adjusted profit of $2.20 to $2.30 per share.

The publisher also anticipates a revenue drop of 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent, a bigger decline that the 4 percent to 5 percent drop-off previously predicted. Based on 2008's $6.36 billion, this implies revenue of about $5.95 billion to $6.01 billion.

Analysts predict full-year net income of $2.24 on revenue of $6.03 billion.