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Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA) Q2 Earnings: What's Up?

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Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. (FOXA - Free Report) is scheduled to report second-quarter fiscal 2017 results on Nov 6. In the previous quarter, the company’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a margin of 15.9%. Notably, in the trailing four quarters, the company surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by an average of 10.2%. Let’s see how things are shaping up prior to this announcement.

Zacks Model Shows Unlikely Earnings Beat

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Twenty-First Century Fox is likely to beat earnings estimates this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. Twenty-First Century Fox has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% as both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate are pegged at 49 cents. The company carries a Zacks Rank #2, which increases the predictive power of ESP but an ESP of 0.00% makes surprise prediction difficult.

You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Factors Influencing This Quarter

The performance of Cable Network Programming has been magnificent in fiscal 2015 and 2016 owing to rising affiliate fees. Affiliate fees are the leading source of revenue for the Cable Network segment as well as a major contributor to total revenues. Earlier, the company had stated that the pace of affiliate fees will accelerate in the back half of the fiscal year as 15–20% of the company’s domestic subscribers will be up for annual renewal in the couple of years. The upcoming renewal is scheduled in early-calendar 2017.

Increase in cost at cable segment has been a worry for investors. In first-quarter fiscal 2017, cable segment expenses increased 12% following an increase of 15% in the preceding quarter. The rise in expenses was mostly due to elevated sports programming costs. The company expects costs at Cable Network to go up in fiscal 2017. At television segment, it projects costs to be hampered by two major factors – broadcast of Super Bowl LI and the Election Cycle. Excluding the effect of Super Bowl, costs are likely to be up mid-single digit. We believe that an increase in expenses, primarily owing to higher sports programming costs may hurt the company’s margins and in turn the bottom line in the coming quarters.

Stocks Poised to Beat Earnings Estimates

Here are some companies you may want to consider as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat:

MSG Networks Inc. has an Earnings ESP of +3.85% and also carries a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Time Warner Inc. has an Earnings ESP of +1.68% and carries a Zacks Rank #3.

Viacom, Inc. has an Earnings ESP of +1.2% and currently has a Zacks Rank #3.

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