Comcast beats earnings estimates but underwhelms in broadband, Peacock subscribers
Comcast topped Wall Street's fourth-quarter estimates on Thursday despite reporting larger-than-expected broadband subscriber losses and stagnating paid subscribers for its streaming service, Peacock.
Wall Street has been particularly focused on cable companies' broadband businesses, which still garner high revenue and earnings but have been in the midst of a customer growth slump due to heightened competition from wireless companies, among other factors.
At the same time, streaming has been top of mind for the Street. Although profitability is now considered the key measure of success, investors have taken note of recent subscriber additions by major players since the introduction of cheaper, ad-supported tiers.
Comcast reported Thursday that it lost 139,000 residential broadband customers during the fourth quarter, more than the 100,000 losses that Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson had telegraphed in December during an investor conference.
The company also reported Thursday that Peacock had 36 million subscribers during the most recent quarter, up year over year but flat from the prior period. Wall Street had been looking for total paid subscribers of 37.56 million, according to estimates from StreetAccount.
Comcast shares were down as much as 5% in premarket trading.
Here is how the company performed for the quarter, compared with average analyst estimates from LSEG:
For the quarter ended Dec. 31, net income attributable to Comcast rose roughly 47% to $4.78 billion, or $1.24 per share, compared with $3.26 billion, or 81 cents per share, a year earlier.
Adjusting for one-time items, including interest expense and the value of certain assets, Comcast reported earnings per share of 96 cents for the period.
Adjusted earnings