Communication services giant Comcast Corp. (CMCSA, Financial) has released strong earnings that beat analyst estimates thanks, in part, to record-setting new customers for their high-speed internet service.
On Thursday, the company reported revenue of $27.70 billion, surpassing Refinitiv estimates of $26.78 billion. Adjusted earnings per share also beat Refinitiv estimates of 48 cents, but were still down 29.10% year over year at 56 cents.
"Outstanding performance at cable drove very strong fourth quarter results for our company," Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said. "We added 538,000 net new broadband customers and delivered Adjusted EBITDA growth of over 12%. Our theme parks in Orlando and Osaka reached breakeven; and encouragingly, Sky returned to customer growth in all three of its markets, bringing our total customer relationships and overall revenue in Europe essentially back to 2019 levels. With the vaccines rolling out throughout the world, we are optimistic that the parts of our business that had been most impacted will soon be back on a path towards growth."
The influx of cable customers alongside an additional 11 million customer signups for NBCUniversal's Peacock service, bringing total signups to 33 million, had a clear impact on revenue for the fourth quarter. Compared to the third quarter, revenue increased by approximately $2 billion and came within 2.4% of 2019 figures.
Cable communications revenue itself increased by 6.3% to a total of $15.7 billion for the fourth quarter. High-speed internet, advertising wireless and business services all had positive impacts, while decreases in voice and video partially offset the gains.
Cable networks, broadcast television and filmed entertainment all took revenue hits, seeing decreases of 6.4%, 12% and 8.3%. These losses were largely due to lower content licensing revenue and almost nonexistent theater attendance across the country. Premium on-demand content did combat these losses with content being released directly to customers.
On Jan. 28, the stock was trading at $51.30 per share with a market cap of $234.21 billion. The GF Value Line shows the company trading at a modestly overvalued rating.
Top invested gurus in Comcast (CMCSA, Financial) include T Rowe Price Equity Income Fund (Trades, Portfolio), Steven Romick (Trades, Portfolio), Yacktman Asset Management (Trades, Portfolio), John Hussman (Trades, Portfolio) and Kahn Brothers (Trades, Portfolio).
Disclosure: Author owns no stocks mentioned.
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