Comcast CMCSA reported third-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings of $1.12 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5.66% and increased 3.7% year over year.
Consolidated revenues increased 6.5% year over year to $32.07 billion and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.86%.
CMCSA shares were up more than 4% in pre-market trading. On a year-to-date basis, shares have lost 3.7% compared with the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector’s appreciation of 5.4%.
CMCSA’s Quarter Details
Comcast lost 87K domestic broadband customers in the reported quarter. Moreover, it lost 365K video customers. Domestic wireless customer lines increased 319K.
Comcast Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Comcast Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Comcast Corporation Quote
Connectivity & Platforms revenues (63.3% of revenues) inched up 0.1% year over year to $20.29 billion in the reported quarter.
Residential Connectivity & Platforms revenues decreased 0.5% year over year at $17.87 billion. Business Services Connectivity revenues increased 4.5% year over year to $2.43 billion.
Content & Experiences revenues (43.7% of revenues) increased 20.8% year over year to $14.02 billion.
Media revenues rose 36.5% year over year to $8.23 billion, primarily due to higher domestic distribution and advertising revenues.
Peacock’s paid subscribers increased 29% year over year to 36 million. Peacock’s revenues in the third quarter jumped 82% to $1.5 billion.
Studios increased 12.2% year over year to $2.83 billion, driven by strong performances from Despicable Me 4 and Twisters.
Theme Parks revenues declined 5.3% year over year to $2.29 billion.
CMCSA's Operating Details
Costs and expenses in the third quarter of 2024 increased 10.9% year over year to $26.21 billion.
Programming & production costs increased 18.1% from the year-ago quarter to $10.22 billion. Marketing and promotional expenses increased 6.6% year over year to $1.99 billion.
Adjusted EBITDA decreased 2.3% from the year-ago quarter to $9.7 billion.
Total Connectivity & Platforms adjusted EBITDA gained 0.9% year over year to $8.295 billion.
Content & Experiences adjusted EBITDA was $1.8 billion, down 8.7% year over year.
CMCSA's Cash Flow & Liquidity Remains Strong
As of Sept. 30, 2024, cash and cash equivalents were $8.81 billion, which increased from $6.06 billion as of June 30, 2024.
As of Sept. 30, 2024, consolidated total debt was $101.64 billion compared with $98.1 billion as of June 30, 2024.
In the third quarter of 2024, Comcast generated $7 billion in cash from operations, which increased from $4.72 billion reported in the previous quarter. Free cash flow was $3.4 billion in the reported quarter, which increased from $1.33 billion reported in the previous quarter.
CMCSA paid dividends totaling $1.2 billion and repurchased shares worth $2 billion, resulting in a total return of capital to shareholders of $3.2 billion.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Currently, Comcast carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Wolverine World Wide WWW, Sonos SONO and Sinclair SBGI are some better-ranked stocks that investors can consider in the broader sector. Each of the three stocks carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Shares of Wolverine World Wide have jumped 79.3% year to date. WWW is set to report third-quarter 2024 results on Nov. 7.
Shares of Sonos have plunged 25% year to date. SONO is slated to report fourth-quarter fiscal 2024 results on Nov. 13.
Shares of Sinclair have appreciated 34% year to date. SBGI is set to report third-quarter 2024 results on Nov. 6.
5 Stocks Set to Double
Each was handpicked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2024. While not all picks can be winners, previous recommendations have soared +143.0%, +175.9%, +498.3% and +673.0%.
Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>Comcast Corporation (CMCSA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Sinclair, Inc. (SBGI) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (WWW) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Sonos, Inc. (SONO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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