21st Century Fox beats the Street in Q2
Details
Michelle Clancy
| 08 February 2017

As it works out how to bring pay-TV giant Sky into the fold, Twenty-First Century Fox’s fiscal second-quarter financials beat a 49 cents per-share earnings estimate by analysts by 4 cents.

Revenue for its largest segment, cable network programming, came in at $3.96 billion, up from $3.7 billion a year earlier. The group's TV stations got a bump from political advertising during the recent US election campaign to bring in revenue of $1.91 billion, compared to a year-earlier $1.71 billion.

The company said it would focus on ‘de-leveraging’ after it wraps a deal for Sky, and warns that earnings comps by its film studio will be "challenging" in its fiscal second half. It also noted the Super Bowl powered its first $500 million revenue day.

The network has featured the Super Bowl and a classic MLB World Series won by the Chicago Cubs, which given the company's TV stations a nice lift, says FBR's Barton Crockett. Missing on revenues and beating on OIBDA weren't really material and due to "lumpy" segments, and momentum in TV is likely to push the company's double-digit EPS growth. He's rating Market Perform and has goosed his price target to $34 from $33, implying 11% upside.