UPDATED with stock decline. Comcast closed 2024 with a strong quarter, handily beating Wall Street estimates, but its shares slumped due to declines in its broadband business.
Revenue of $31.9 billion topped the Street’s expectations for $31.6 billion, rising 2% over the year-ago period, while adjusted earnings per share of 96 cents were a dime better than the consensus forecast.
Despite the upbeat earnings news, shares in Comcast sank as much as 10% in the opening hour of the trading day – a dramatic move for a stock that typically moves in fractional increments. The culprit appeared to be broadband losses. The company shed 139,000 broadband customers, significantly more than analysts had expected, as the longtime financial bulwark showed the impact of fiber rivals AT&T and Verizon moving in on Comcast’s turf.
In the Content & Experiences division, revenue rose 5% to $7.2 billion, with distribution growth pacing the Media segment. The Studios unit saw a 85% year-over-year burst in EBITDA and 7% revenue growth to $3.27 billion thanks to the box office performances of Wicked and The Wild Robot.
Lower domestic theme park attendance kept revenue at the parks unit flat, while EBITDA sagged 4%.
Peacock, the company’s nearly 5-year-old streaming service, is still not yet breaking even but revenue jumped 28% in the quarter to $1.3 billion. EBITDA losses came in at $372 million, less than half the level of the year-ago quarter. Subscriber levels stayed at 36 million, the same number as the third quarter.
Comcast shed 311,000 domestic video customers, an improvement from the year-ago decline of 389,000 to end the year at 12.5 million. Charter Communications last year overtook Comcast as the No. 1 pay-TV operator in the U.S., though higher-margin businesses like broadband and wireless have become the strategic focus.
In the company’s earnings release, CEO Brian Roberts called the full-year 2024 results “the best financial performance in our company’s 60-year history, with record revenue, EBITDA and EPS along with significant free cash flow.”
The quarterly report comes two months after the company announced plans to spin off most of its cable TV networks into a new, stand-alone company. That transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
NBCU has also been in restructuring mode, with Donna Langley and Matt Strauss overseeing a revamp of the org chart after rising to new roles. Peacock chief Kelly Campbell and NBCU unscripted chief Corie Henson both departed in a newer version of the vertical integration strategies previously implemented in the media business.
