Telecom & Wireless

Are Comcast Earnings Enough for Investors?

Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) reported its third-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Tuesday. The cable giant had $0.80 in earnings per share (EPS) on $18.67 billion in revenue, which compared to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters of $0.80 in EPS on revenue of $18.03 billion. In the same period of the previous year, it posted EPS of $0.99 and $16.79 billion in revenue.

Customer relationships increased by 156,000 to 27.4 million in the third quarter of 2015, a 74,000, or 90.2%, improvement compared to the third quarter of 2014.

The board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 a share on the company’s common stock. The quarterly dividend is payable on January 27, 2016, to shareholders of record as of the close on January 6, 2016.

In terms of its segments the company reported the following:

  • Cable Networks segment revenue increased 7.0% to $2.4 billion, compared to $2.3 billion in the third quarter of 2014, driven by an 8.6% increase in distribution revenue and a 2.0% increase in advertising revenue.
  • Broadcast Television segment revenue increased 11.3% to $2.0 billion, compared to $1.8 billion in the third quarter of 2014, reflecting a 33.5% increase in content licensing revenue.
  • Filmed Entertainment segment revenue increased 64.0% to $1.9 billion, compared to $1.2 billion in the third quarter of 2014, driven by higher theatrical revenue from the record performances of “Minions” and “Jurassic World.”
  • Theme Parks segment revenue increased 14.1% to $896 million, compared to $786 million in the third quarter of 2014, reflecting higher guest attendance and per capita spending.

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Brian L. Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation, said:

I’m pleased to report that our businesses generated outstanding revenue and operating cash flow growth for the third quarter of 2015. At Cable Communications, overall customer relationships increased 156,000, a 90% improvement compared to last year, video subscriber results were the best for a third quarter in 9 years, high-speed Internet subscriber results were the best for a third quarter in 6 years, and churn across all product categories continues to improve. NBCUniversal also delivered terrific results, including another record-breaking box office quarter driven by Minions and Jurassic World, the highest summer attendance ever at our theme parks, and maintaining the #1 broadcast network ranking for the 5th summer in a row. These outstanding results from our unique portfolio of complementary businesses underscore our confidence that we are well positioned to compete, continue our strong performance and drive shareholder value.

Operating cash flow increased 8.4% to $6.2 billion in the third quarter, while free cash flow increased 6.8% to $2.7 billion.

Shares of Comcast were down 1.4% late Tuesday morning to $61.29. The consensus analyst price target is $70.77, and the 52-week trading range is $50.00 to $64.99.

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