U.S. stocks were in the red on Friday on the back of tensions between President Donald Trump and Huawei. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.10% to 26,349, the S&P 500 Index lost 0.40% to 2,926 and the Nasdaq Composite Index swelled 0.61% to 7,990.
Shares of CBS Corp. (CBS, Financial) fell 4% after it announced second-quarter results. The company posted earnings of $1.16 per share on $3.81 billion in revenue, reflecting 9.8% growth from the prior-year quarter. The company beat earnings estimates by 3 cents and revenue expectations by $100 million.
In a statement, President and CEO Joe Ianniello commented on the company's performance:
"We achieved double-digit revenue growth in the second quarter, with increases in each of our three key revenue sources. Our direct-to-consumer services, CBS All Access and Showtime, continue to perform strongly, helping fuel a 13% increase in affiliate and subscription fee revenue for the quarter. And we remain on track to reach our goal of 25 million subscribers combined by 2022. Meanwhile, advertising grew 7%, and we have continued momentum as we head into the back half of the year, thanks to another robust upfront, with solid gains in pricing. Content licensing also had a very strong quarter, up 12%, as we continue to build a lucrative portfolio by creating must-have programming for our own content brands in addition to highly successful content for third-party platforms.”
Operating income grew 5% from the prior-year quarter to $695 million. Adjusted operating income increased 1% to $702 million. Both increases resulted from strong revenue growth, partially offset by higher costs.
The operating cash flow was an outflow of $124 million and the free cash flow was $157 million, compared with an inflow of $326 million and free cash flow of $296 million in the year-ago quarter.
Publishing revenue increased 5.3% to $218 million, with higher print book and digital audio sales. The segment's operating income increased 6.5% to $33 million. Local Media revenues grew 0.7% to $423 million on the back of higher advertising revenues provided by the NCAA Tournament broadcast. Local Media operating income climbed 1.6% to $130 million, driven by solid revenue growth.
During the quarter ended June 30, Mario Gabelli (Trades, Portfolio) boosted his holding by 3.46% to 301,149 shares.
Gainers
- News Corp. (NWSA, Financial) +5.4%
- News Corp. (NWS, Financial) +5.1%
- Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD, Financial) +3.5%
- Broadcom Inc. (AVGO, Financial) +3.1%
- Hess Corp. (HES, Financial) +2.1%
Losers
- DXC Technology Co. (DXC, Financial) -30.3%
- Capri Holdings Ltd. (CPRI, Financial) -4.9%
- Albemarle Corp. (ALB, Financial) -4.4%
- PVH Corp. (PVH, Financial) -4.4%
- Under Armour Inc. (UAA, Financial) -4.3%
Global markets
The main European stock markets traded in the red. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 slid 0.44%, France's CAC 40 tumbled 1.11%, Germany's Dax retreated 1.28% and Spain's Ibex 35 fell 1.25%.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.44%, India’s BSE Sensex gained 0.68%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.69% and China's Shanghai Composite sunk 0.71%.
Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.
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