McGraw-Hill shares may be a good buy - Barron's

NEW YORK Oct 11 (Reuters) - Shares of U.S. textbook publisher and Standard & Poor's owner McGraw-Hill Companies Inc (MHP.N) may be a buy as the company's profit outlook is brightening, business newspaper Barron's reported in its Oct. 12 edition.

The business weekly said that while investors have shunned McGraw-Hill because of concerns about legal risk and changes in Washington that could affect its core rating agency business, the company's chief executive now says legal risk is "low."

Also, Standard & Poor's, which contributes 75 percent of McGraw-Hill's earnings, stands to benefit from a sharp increase in bond issuance in the third quarter, since it is paid by debt issuers to give ratings, Barron's reported.

Barron's said that its analysis suggests McGraw-Hill stock trades at a discount of almost 25 percent to the sum of its parts.

McGraw-Hill shares closed at $27.28 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. The company's shares are up about 25 percent from a year earlier.

(Reporting by Emily Chasan, editing by Martin Golan)