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Comcast (CMCSA) Q2 Earnings Beat Estimates, Revenues Miss

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Comcast (CMCSA - Free Report) reported second-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings of $1.21 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 9.01% and increased 7.1% year over year.

Consolidated revenues decreased 2.7% year over year to $29.6 billion and missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.26%.

Domestic broadband average rate per customer increased 3.6% and drove domestic broadband revenue growth of 3% to $6.6 billion in the second quarter. 

Comcast lost 120K domestic broadband customers in the reported quarter. Moreover, it lost 419K video customers. Domestic wireless customer lines increased 20% compared with the year-ago quarter to 7.2 million, including net additions of 322K in the second quarter.

Shares of CMCSA have lost 9.9% year to date compared with the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector’s decline of 1.3%.

Comcast Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Comcast Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Comcast Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Comcast Corporation Quote

Quarter Details

Connectivity & Platforms revenues (68.2% of revenues) decreased 0.6% year over year to $20.24 billion in the reported quarter. 

Residential Connectivity & Platforms revenues declined 1.4% year over year at $17.82 billion. Business Services Connectivity revenues increased 5.6% year over year to $2.42 billion.

Content & Experiences revenues (33.9% of revenues) decreased 7.5% year over year to $10.05 billion. Media revenues rose 2.1% year over year to $6.32 billion, primarily due to higher domestic distribution revenues. Peacock’s paid subscribers rallied nearly 38% year over year to 33 million. Peacock’s revenues in the second quarter jumped 28% to $1 billion.

Studios decreased 27% year over year to $2.25 billion, primarily due to lower theatrical revenues and content licensing revenues. Theatrical revenues decreased due to higher revenues from the volume and strength of theatrical releases in the prior-year period, including The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Fast X. Content licensing revenues fell primarily due to the timing of when content was made available by television studios.

Theme Parks lost 10.6% year over year to $1.97 billion due to lower revenues at the company’s domestic theme parks, attributable to lower guest attendance, as well as the negative impact of foreign currency at international theme parks.

Operating Details

Costs and expenses in the second quarter of 2024 decreased 3.2% year over year to $23.05 billion.

Programming & production costs decreased 10% from the year-ago quarter to $7.96 billion. Marketing and promotional expenses decreased 8.5% year over year to $1.92 billion.

Adjusted EBITDA decreased 0.7% from the year-ago quarter to $10.17 billion. 

Total Connectivity & Platforms adjusted EBITDA gained 1.6% year over year to $8.48 billion. 
Content & Experiences adjusted EBITDA was $1.94 billion, down 10.9% year over year.

Cash Flow & Liquidity

As of Jun 30, 2024, cash and cash equivalents were $6.06 billion, which increased from $6.58 billion as of Mar 31, 2024.

As of Jun 30, 2024, consolidated total debt was $98.1 billion compared with $96.5 billion as of Mar 31, 2024.

In the second quarter of 2024, Comcast generated $4.72 billion in cash from operations, which decreased from $7.84 billion reported in the previous quarter. Free cash flow was $1.33 billion in the reported quarter, which decreased from $4.53 billion reported in the previous quarter.

CMCSA paid dividends totaling $1.2 billion and repurchased 56.4 million of its shares for $2.2 billion, resulting in a total return of capital to shareholders of $3.4 billion.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Currently, Comcast carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Cinemark (CNK - Free Report) , Cimpress (CMPR - Free Report) and Roblox (RBLX - Free Report) are some better-ranked stocks that investors can consider in the broader sector. DIS, REYN and RBLX carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) each at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Shares of Cinemark have jumped 54% year to date. CNK is set to report second-quarter 2024 results on Aug 2.

Shares of Cimpress have gained 15.5% year to date. CMPR is slated to report first-quarter 2024 results on Jul 31.

Shares of Roblox have plunged 10.3% year to date. RBLX is set to report second-quarter 2024 results on Aug 1.

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