Television giant Comcast Corp. (CMCSA,CMCSK) on Wednesday reported a bigger-than-expected fourth quarter profit, as the NBCUniversal parent kept its TV subscribers from switching to satellite. With the nation's biggest cable company continuing to add internet customers, Comcast also raised its quarterly dividend and announced plans to buy back more than $6 billion in stock.
Shares of the company are up more than 6 percent ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street.
"Cable had another terrific quarter of improving customer metrics, demonstrating that our new XFINITY brand and our intensified focus on service and innovation are making a real difference," Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said in a statement.
The company lost only 17,000 TV subscribers, a big improvement from the 135,000 defections seen in the final quarter of 2010.
The company's combined video, high-speed Internet and voice customers in the fourth quarter increased by 465,000, up 12.3 percent from last year.
Cash-rich Comcast increased its yearly dividend by 44 percent to $0.65 per share.
Comcast repurchased 21.9 million of its common shares during the quarter for $491 million. It also authorized a new $6.5 billion stock repurchase program, and said it plans to repurchase $3 billion during 2012, subject to market conditions. The represents a 40 percent increase over the total of $2.1 billion repurchased in 2011.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Comcast, the largest U.S. cable operator, reported net income of $1.29 billion or $0.47 per share for the fourth quarter, higher than $1.02 billion or $0.36 per share in the prior-year quarter.
In January 2011, Comcast and media and financial company General Electric (GE) closed their transaction to create a joint venture NBCUniversal, LLC. The new company, valued at about $37 billion, is owned 51 percent by Comcast and 49 percent by GE.
Excluding the NBCUniversal transaction and other items, adjusted net income grew to $1.30 billion or $0.47 per share from $975 million or $0.35 per share in the year-ago quarter.
On average, 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.41 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Revenue for the quarter improved 54.7 percent to $15.04 billion from the same quarter last year, and topped analysts' consensus estimate of $14.87 billion. 2011 sales were up sharply to $55.84 billion.
CMCSA closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $27.25, up $0.03 on a volume of 16.73 million shares.
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