Comcast beats the street with stellar Q4
Details
Michelle Clancy
| 27 January 2017

US pay-TV giant Comcast has exceeded expectations for its fourth quarter of 2016, reporting earnings per share of 89 cents for the fourth quarter of 2016 on $21.03 billion in revenue.

Analysts had been expecting earnings per share of 87 cents on $20.68 billion in revenue. The cableco also reported operating income of $4.26 billion, up from $4 billion one year ago; operating cash flow for the quarter was $6.76 billion, which is up from the $6.72 billion reported during the same time in 2015.

“Our performance at Comcast Cable was exceptionally strong,” Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said. “We grew operating cash flow 5.6%, added 161,000 video subscribers, the best video customer results in a decade, and delivered our best high-speed Internet customer results in nine years.”

He added: “NBCUniversal also had a terrific year, fuelled by the tremendous success of the Olympics, the opening of new attractions at our theme parks, and strong theatrical performances, particularly in animation. The consistency and strength of our results enables us to announce that we are increasing our dividend by 15% per share, we will split our stock two-for-one, the twelfth split in our company’s history, and we expect to repurchase $5 billion of our stock this year.”

Subscriber levels for NBCU’s cable networks dropped, but cable network revenue grew 4% to $2.5 billion for the quarter. Distribution revenue increased 4.7% for the quarter, and content licensing was up 14.6%.

At the flagship NBC broadcast network, the debut of Thursday Night Football resulted in advertising gains of 12.4%. Retransmission consent revenue was up 14.1%, while content licensing spiked 20.2%. Revenue overall for the broadcast unit hit $2.8 billion (up 14%).

The company also announced a two-for-one split stock split, which will come in the form of a 100% dividend. It will be payable to shareholders on 17 February.