Comcast beats by $0.02, reports revs in-line; raises dividend 21%; plans to buyback $5 bln in stock this year (42.44)
- Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.49 per share, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.47; revenues rose 4.2% year/year to $21.91 bln vs the $21.83 bln Capital IQ Consensus. Adjusted EBITDA of $6.8 Billion was Consistent with the Prior year. Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities was $5.4 Billion; Free Cash Flow was $2.0 Billion.
- Cable Communications Revenue Increased 3.4%; Adjusted EBITDA Increased 4.2%. Revenue growth was driven primarily by increases in high-speed Internet, business services and video revenue. High-speed Internet revenue increased 8.4%, driven by an increase in the number of residential high-speed Internet customers and rate adjustments. Business services revenue increased 12.2%, primarily due to increases in the number of customers receiving our small and medium-sized business services offerings. Video revenue increased 1.5%, primarily reflecting rate adjustments, as well as an increase in the number of customers subscribing to additional services, partially offset by a decrease in the number of residential video customers. Customer Relationships Increased by 243,000; High-Speed Internet Customer Net Additions were 350,000; Video Customer Net Losses were 33,000
- NBCUniversal Revenue Increased 3.9%; Adjusted EBITDA Increased 6.4%. Cable Networks revenue increased 7.5% to $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017, reflecting higher distribution, content licensing and other and advertising revenue. Distribution revenue increased 6.7%, due to contractual rate increases and contract renewals, partially offset by a decline in subscribers at our cable networks. Content licensing and other revenue increased 34.5%, due to the timing of content provided under licensing agreements. Advertising revenue increased 2.3%, reflecting higher rates, partially offset by audience ratings declines.
- Increased Dividend by 21% to $0.76 per Share on an Annualized Basis for 2018; As of December 31, 2017, Comcast had $7.0 Billion Available under its Share Repurchase Authorization, with at Least $5 Billion Expected to be Repurchased in 2018
- "At Cable, our best-in-class products and continued focus on the customer experience drove healthy EBITDA growth balanced with strong customer relationship net additions. At NBCUniversal, our Film business achieved record profitability, our Theme Parks delivered record attendance, and our TV business produced strong results - demonstrating the power of our sports, news and entertainment content."