Comcast Rises After Q3 Report

Cable television and media company Comcast

released its fiscal third-quarter earnings results on Friday prior to the opening bell. Profits and revenue were both up sharply at Comcast as the company benefited from strong advertising revenue during the Olympics. Per share earnings were in-line with Wall Street expectations, while a 15 percent increase in revenue was above forecasts. During Friday's trading session, CMCSA was last up around 3 percent to $37.34. Comcast has been a phenomenal stock in 2012 as shares have broken out to new all-time highs. Year-to-date, CMSCA is now up more than 57 percent, making it one of the top performing large-cap names on the planet right now. At current levels, Comcast has a market cap of roughly $100 billion and the stock is yielding around 1.80 percent. For the third quarter, Comcast reported that net income attributable to the company was $2.11 billion or $0.78 per share, compared to $908 million or $0.33 per share, in last year's corresponding quarter. On an adjusted basis, which is comparable to analysts' consensus, Comcast reported earnings per share of $0.46. This was in-line with analysts' consensus EPS estimates. Revenues in the period were up 15.4 percent to $16.54 billion from $14.34 billion last year. This came in ahead of Wall Street consensus revenue expectations of $16.08 billion. The 2012 London Olympic games added $1.2 billion in the quarter. When excluding the effect of the Olympics, revenues were up 7.1 percent in the third-quarter. Revenues rose at all of Comcast's major divisions. The Cable Communications segment saw a 6.9 percent increase in revenue to $10 billion. The Cable Networking division reported a 3.2 percent rise in revenue to $2.2 billion and the Broadcast Television segment recorded a 83.8 percent surge in sales to $2.8 billion, in large part because of the Olympics. Finally, the company's Filmed Entertainment division saw revenues rise 23.6 percent to $1.4 billion, on the back of strong box office performances for films Ted and The Bourne Legacy.