Comcast Q4 Profit Rises; Hikes Dividend, Expands Share Buyback

(RTTNews) - Cable television giant Comcast Corp. (CMCSA, CMCSK) reported a profit for the fourth quarter of 2015 that increased 2.4% from last year. It has increased its stock repurchase program authorization to $10.0 billion, with $5.0 billion to be repurchased in 2016. It also increased its dividend by 10.0% to $1.10 per share on an annualized basis.

Net income attributable to the company for the fourth quarter of 2015 rose 2.39% to $1.971 billion from $1.925 billion in the prior year. Earnings per share were $0.79, a 6.8% increase from the $0.74 last year.

Excluding a $0.02 loss on an investment resulting from our proportionate share of an impairment loss recorded at The Weather Channel in the fourth quarter of 2015, as well as $0.03 of transaction-related costs in the fourth quarter of 2014, earnings per share for the quarter increased 5.2% to $0.81 from $0.77 per share last year.

Capital Expenditures increased 18.6% to $2.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to the fourth quarter of 2014. Cable Communications' capital expenditures increased $190 million, or 10.2%, to $2.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015, primarily reflecting continued spending on customer premise equipment related to the deployment of the X1 platform and wireless gateways and increased investment in network infrastructure to increase network capacity. Cable capital expenditures represented 17.2% of Cable revenue in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to 16.5% in last year's fourth quarter.

Comcast announced that its board has increased its stock repurchase program authorization to $10.0 billion. Comcast expects to repurchase $5.0 billion of its Class A common stock during 2016, subject to market conditions.

In addition, Comcast announced that it increased its dividend by 10.0% to $1.10 per share on an annualized basis. In accordance with the increase, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.275 a share on the company's common stock, payable on April 27, 2016 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on April 6, 2016.

Consolidated revenue for the fourth quarter of 2015 increased about 8.5% to $19.24 billion from $17.73 billion. Wall Street expected revenues of $18.76 billion for the quarter.

On November 13, 2015, the company acquired a 51% interest in the Universal Studios theme park located in Osaka, Japan. Fourth quarter 2015 results included $169 million of revenue and attributable to Universal Studios Japan from its acquisition date. Consolidated revenue for the fourth quarter of 2015 excluding Universal Studios Japan increased 7.6%.

Revenue for Cable Communications increased 5.9% to $12.0 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to $11.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014, driven by increases of 9.8% in high-speed Internet, 4.4% in video and 18.9% in business services, partially offset by a 9.3% decline in advertising due to lower political advertising revenue.

Customer relationships increased by 281,000 to 27.7 million during the fourth quarter of 2015, a 57.6% improvement compared to an increase of 178,000 in the fourth quarter of 2014, driven by increases in double product and triple product relationships. Video customer net additions of 89,000 were the best result for a quarter in eight years, high-speed Internet customer net additions of 460,000 were the best result for a fourth quarter in nine years, and Voice customer net additions improved to 139,000.

Revenue for NBCUniversal increased 13.0% to $7.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to $6.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014.

For the fourth quarter of 2015, Cable Networks segment revenue increased 3.4% to $2.4 billion and operating cash flow decreased 1.9% to $894 million.

For the fourth quarter of 2015, revenue from the Broadcast Television segment increased 7.0% to $2.5 billion compared to $2.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014, reflecting a 7.0% increase in advertising revenue, primarily driven by higher rates, a 34.9% increase in content licensing revenue, and higher retransmission consent fees.

CMCSA closed Tuesday trading at $54.59, down $1.22 or 2.19%.