Twenty-First Century Fox Q3 Profit Tops Views

reported better-than-expected earnings for the fiscal third quarter. The New York-based company reported a quarterly profit of $975 million, or $0.46 per share, compared to $1.05 billion, or $0.47 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding certain items, the company earned $0.42 per share. Its revenue slipped to $6.84 billion from $8.22 billion, while revenue on an adjusted basis climbed to $6.84 billion from $6.76 billion. Analysts were projecting a profit of $0.39 per share on revenue of $6.82 billion. The average estimate among 3 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.44 per share and revenue of $7.42 billion. Total segment operating income before depreciation and amortization slipped to $1.68 billion, versus $1.79 billion in the year-ago quarter. Cable Network Programming segment OIBDA rose 5 percent to $1.23 billion in the latest quarter, while Television segment OIBDA dropped 51 percent to $141 million. Filmed Entertainment segment OIBDA gained 8 percent year-over-year to $382 million in the latest quarter. Revenue at its Cable Network Programming segment climbed to $3.59 billion from $3.15 billion, while revenue in its Filmed Entertainment segment rose to $2.39 billion from $2.28 billion. Television segment revenue shrank to $1.24 billion, versus $1.59 billion, in the year-ago period. During the quarter, Twenty-First Century Fox repurchased 59 million shares of Class A Common Stock for $2.1 billion. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch said,"In the fiscal third quarter, we delivered double-digit affiliate revenue growth at our cable networks and continued our strong operating performance at our film studio. Our results reflect the underlying strength of our business even as it was impacted by an unfavorable comparison for our broadcast television businesses without the Super Bowl and ongoing currency headwinds. In addition, we're seeing real momentum from our continued investments in our global channels business, most notably with the ICC Cricket World Cup broadcasts on STAR Sports in India which broke both linear and digital viewing records." Twenty-First Century Fox shares finished down 0.53 percent at $33.03 during regular trading hours.