Earnings

Comcast beats earnings expectations, but falls short on new internet customers

Comcast reported fourth quarter earnings Thursday that beat analyst estimates on the top and bottom line but missed on high-speed internet customer net additions.

Shares were up nearly 1% during premarket trading following the report.

Here are the key numbers:

  • Earnings per share: 77 cents, adjusted vs. 73 cents estimated per a Refinitiv survey of analysts
  • Revenue: $30.34 billion vs. $29.61 billion estimated, according to Refinitiv
  • High-speed internet customers: 212,000 net additions vs. 220,000 estimated, according to FactSet

Comcast said its dividend increased 8% to 27 cents per quarter and that it increased its stock buyback authorization by $10 billion.

The company warned about lower-than-expected broadband customer growth in the fourth quarter at an event last month.

Here’s how Comcast’s divisions did in the quarter compared with a year earlier:

  • Cable Communications contributed $16.41 billion in revenue, up 4.5%
  • Media brought in $5.83 billion in revenue, up 8.4%
  • Studios contributed $2.42 billion in revenue, up 36.4%
  • Theme Parks brought in $1.89 billion in revenue, up 191.3%
  • Sky contributed $5.08 billion in revenue, down 2.5%

NBCUniversal’s ad-supported streaming platform, Peacock, ended 2021 with 24.5 million monthly active accounts. As of July, the company said it had 54 million sign-ups to the platform, which entered a crowded field of competitors including Netflix, Disney and Amazon.

The company said its media results included $335 million of revenue and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $559 million related to Peacock, compared to $71 million in revenue and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $254 million compared to the same quarter last year.

After extended shutdowns due to the pandemic, the company’s theme parks business saw a big bounce back, seeing its most profitable fourth quarter on record, even while access to international guests remained constrained. The segment brought in $1.89 billion in revenue, a 191.3% increase from the year-ago quarter.

Sky saw a slight decrease in revenue compared to the same quarter last year, mainly due to lower content revenue in part because of changes to sports programming licensing and direct-to-consumer revenue.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of CNBC parent company NBCUniversal.

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