In Wednesday premarket trading, Comcast Corp. (CMCSA, Financial)’s stock traded higher as the company posted its financial results for the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2017. For the quarter, the company reported annual net sales growth of 4.3% to $21.92 billion, while its profit advanced to 49 cents per share. The results exceeded the analysts’ estimates by 2 cents in per-share earnings and $100 million in revenue.
Brian L. Roberts, Comcast's chairman and CEO said, In 2017, we achieved strong financial and operational results while also delivering new innovations, experiences and must-see content to people around the world.”
Moreover, during the fourth quarter, the company paid $736 million in dividends and repurchased 32.4 million of its common shares for $1.2 billion. The company hiked the dividend by 21% to 76 cents per share on an annualized basis for 2018, for a quarterly cash dividend of 19 cents per share.
Waters Corp. (WAT, Financial)’s stock is in the green after the company reported its financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017 yesterday. The company posted adjusted earnings per share of $2.51 on revenue of $687.28 million. Moreover, the company managed to beat earnings per share expectations by 7 cents and revenue by $17.89 million.
Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN, Financial) declined after the company reported fourth quarter earnings per share of $1.09 on revenue of $3.75 billion, in-line with profit estimates and beating revenue expectations by $10 million.Revenue rose by 10% year-over-year, while its gross margin reached 65.1% due to the quality of the product portfolio and the efficiency of the manufacturing strategy.
The Procter & Gamble Company (PG, Financial)’s stock has moved in negative territory despite the analysts at SunTrust RH being more bullish on the company today, raising the stock price target to $90 from $85. Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ, Financial) was other stock which saw an increase in the price target to $58 from $52 and traded higher on Wednesday.
Disclosure: The author holds no position in any stocks mentioned.
