What happened
Media giant Comcast (CMCSA +0.19%) reported its fourth-quarter figures Thursday morning, and investors reacted by trading the stock down slightly (by 0.9%). This, despite beats on both the top and bottom lines, a dividend raise, and an expansion of the company's share buyback program.
So what
For the quarter, Comcast delivered a nearly 10% year-over-year increase in revenue, at slightly more than $30.3 billion. That percentage figure was much higher for non-GAAP (adjusted) net income, which expanded by 35% to a bit over $3.5 billion, or $0.77 per share.
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Both headline numbers topped analyst estimates, although not spectacularly. On average, prognosticators following the stock were anticipating $29.7 billion on the top line, and an adjusted per-share net profit of $0.73.
"We continue to execute extraordinarily well, strengthening our leadership position in connectivity, aggregation, and streaming," Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said in the earnings release.
Comcast is also continuing to raise its quarterly dividend. As it has done at the start of the last few years, the media company declared a hike on Thursday. The new payout is 8% higher than its predecessor at $0.27, and will be paid on April 27 to investors of record as of April 6. On Thursday's closing stock price, it would yield 2.2%.
Finally, the company announced that it has upped the amount authorized under its current share repurchase program to $10 billion, retroactively effective Jan. 1. It wasn't immediately clear how much was left under the previous program, which was enacted in May 2021.
Now what
Comcast's results were fairly solid, although some business activities were more successful than others (such as broadband service, which saw a nearly 9% revenue improvement).
But the company operates in a sector with no shortage of heavyweights, notably Walt Disney, which remains an investor favorite despite some recent hiccups. Comcast investors might have been hoping for more convincing top- and bottom-line beats from their company for the quarter.
