Comcast’s fourth-quarter revenue rose 0.7% to $30.55 billion.
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Comcast
‘s fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat analysts’ expectations, despite wider losses at its streaming service Peacock and a blow to broadband-subscriber growth from Hurricane Ian.
The cable company on Thursday reported sales for the December quarter of $30.55 billion, up 0.7% from the prior year. Analysts expected quarterly sales of $30.35 billion, according to FactSet.
After adjusting for acquisition-related costs and changes in the value of investments,
Comcast
‘s (ticker: CMCSA) earnings per share were 82 cents. Analysts had expected 78 cents a share, according to FactSet.
Comcast stock, which Barron’s wrote favorably about last month, was down 1% in premarket trading.
Comcast said it lost 26,000 total broadband customers during the period, driven by service interruptions due to Hurricane Ian. Excluding the impact of the hurricane, Comcast said it would have added 4,000 broadband customers. Comcast lost 440,000 video subscribers in the quarter as cord-cutting continued.
Comcast’s quarterly adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization—or Ebitda– came to $8 billion, down 4.9% from the prior year. That compares with analysts’ expectations of $8.36 billion. Excluding higher severance costs, Comcast said adjusted Ebitda would have risen 1.5%.
Comcast’s NBCUniversal segment reported adjusted Ebitda of $817 million, falling 36% from the prior year. Excluding costs associated with its headquarters and severance, Ebitda fell 22%.
Within NBCUniversal, streaming platform Peacock gained around 5 million subscribers to end the year with more than 20 million subscribers, but the company booked an adjusted Ebitda loss of $978 million associated with the service.
Comcast said it would increase its dividend by 7.4% to $1.16 a share on an annualized basis for 2023.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
Credit: marketwatch.com