Last night, Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) reported a 2.9% gain in fourth-quarter revenue and a 136% jump in per-share earnings. Operating cash flow margin fell slightly over the same period, to 40.6% from 40.9%. Let's dig into the story behind these numbers.
What happened?
Cable is obviously Comcast's bread-and-butter, and it tastes good about now. Segment revenue improved 2.6% in Q4 to account for 94.4% of the company's fourth-quarter sales.
Subscriber growth helped to deliver those numbers. Net customer adds equaled 701,000 in Q4, with 2.94 million for the full year. In a difficult economic environment, this is nothing to sneeze at. Comcast helped spur growth in customers by delivering their 4G wireless broadband service and On Demand Online. But most importantly, it continued to grow its high speed Internet and digital voice services -- this helped offset customer losses in video and ad revenues.
What's next?
Programming revenue improved 5.2% in Q4 and could increase further in subsequent months, thanks to the company's acquisition of a majority interest in NBC Universal from General Electric (NYSE:GE). Analysts are expecting Comcast to earn $0.40 per share on $9.1 billion in first-quarter revenue.
Comcast, meanwhile, is raising its annual dividend 40%, to $0.378 per share. Management also committed to continue buying back shares, as it illustrated by purchasing $300 million in Q4 alone. That's applause-worthy. Dividend increases and earnings growth usually go together, hand-in-glove.
Would you buy Comcast?
|
Metric | |
|---|---|
|
CAPS stars (out of 5) |
** |
|
Total ratings |
927 |
|
Percent Bulls |
83.7% |
|
Percent Bears |
16.3% |
|
Bullish pitches |
145 out of 177 |
|
14.58 | |
|
Expected 5-Year Growth Rate |
12.48% |
|
Competitors |
DirecTV (NYSE:DTV) Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH) AT&T (NYSE:T) |
Sources: CAPS, Yahoo! Finance.
No one knows if NBC will be the catalyst Comcast wants it to be. It never really worked for GE. Can it work here? Only if Comcast finds ways to profitably marry content and distribution, and in a manner that doesn't annoy network partners CBS (NYSE:CBS) and Disney (NYSE:DIS), which owns the ABC television network.
But that's my take. Now it's your turn to weigh in. Would you buy Comcast at these levels? What were you expecting from Wednesday's earnings report? Make your voice heard using the comments box below.
