DirecTV Q1 Profit Rises - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - DirecTV (DTV) reported that its net income attributable to the company for the first-quarter 2015 increased to $730 million from the prior year's $561 million, with earnings per share improving to $1.44 from $1.09 last year.

Net income attributable to the company, excluding the Venezuelan currency devaluation charge, declined to $730 million from $842 million in the prior year. Adjusted earnings per share was $1.44 down from $1.63 last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $1.53 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The declines were mainly due to the lower adjusted operating profit, as well as a $31 million pre-tax non-cash loss associated with the revaluation of U.S. dollar denominated net liabilities in Brazil compared to a $6 million gain in the prior year period. These declines were partially offset by the impact of lower tax expense primarily due to the lower adjusted pre-tax income.

First quarter 2015 adjusted OPBDA and adjusted operating profit declined to $2.12 billion and $1.39 billion, respectively, while adjusted OPBDA margin and adjusted operating profit margin declined to 26.0% and 17.0%, respectively.

The decline in margin was primarily due to lower margins at Sky Brasil mainly due to customer system migration issues, higher programming and subscriber acquisition expenses at DIRECTV U.S. and increased general and administrative expenses, mainly at the Sports Networks, Eliminations and Other segment primarily due to merger related costs of $26 million in 2015. Reported OPBDA increased 9% to $2.12 billion and reported operating profit decreased to $1.39 billion.

Quarterly revenues of $8.14 billion increased 4% principally due to strong ARPU growth at DIRECTV U.S. Wall Street expected revenues of $8.15 billion.