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Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to be 6.5% increase late on Thursday morning, an unusual move for normally calm stocks, after the morning third quarter earnings report delivered outstanding profits as rising prices boosted sales even amid the ongoing loss of TV customers.
The stock is continuing to decline slightly into late October from a six-year low of $28.46 it hit on October 13; Comcast is 18% increase in two weeks from.
Revenue fell just 1.5% to $29.85 billion, as growth in its Cable Communications division (2.6 percent, to $16.54 billion) softened the blow to the its media businesses, NBCUniversal and Sky.
NBCUniversal posted a 35% drop in ad sales compared to a difficult comparable quarter (compared to the Olympics).
The company posted a net loss of $4.6 billion from last year’s profit of $4 billion, although the Sky company suffered a goodwill loss of $8.6 billion. On an adjusted basis, net income increased 4.5% to $4.22 billion.
“We delivered solid growth in adjusted and adjusted EBITDA (earnings per share), generated substantial free cash flow, invested in the future of our business, and returned record capital for our shareholders,” said optimistic CEO Brian Roberts.
Video subscribers dropped a record, with a worse-than-expected net change adding -561,000. The number of high-speed Internet subscribers increased slightly more than expected, up 14,000.
Communications Competitors Charter (NASDAQ:CHAPTER) were also among the best bullish media companies on Thursday, + 4.7% and bounced off a 52-week low from late September.
