Comcast reports its third-quarter earnings before the bell Thursday. Wall Street will once again be focused on subscriber numbers and growth for both broadband and streaming platform Peacock.
Investors in recent quarters have homed in on the broadband business for Comcast and its cable peers, as customer growth has stumbled. Comcast executives have pinned the slump on a slowdown in the buying and selling of homes. Competition has also ramped up from wireless providers like Verizon and T-Mobile.
Despite the slowdown in net subscriber additions, broadband revenue has increased at Comcast in recent quarters and helped to propel earnings.
Here is how Comcast is expected to perform, according to estimates from analysts surveyed by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.06 expected
- Revenue: $31.66 billion expected
Wall Street will also be paying attention to the progress Peacock is making when it comes to subscriber growth, as well as how much the losses from the platform weighed on the company during the quarter.
Peacock had 34 million customers at the end of the second quarter. While losses from Peacock continued to weigh on the company, last quarter showed an improvement.
Analysts expect that Comcast’s NBCUniversal, which is part of its media business, will likely see its earnings propelled by the Summer Olympics in Paris, which mostly took place during the beginning of the third quarter.
“Paris seemed to represent a renaissance as far as Olympics go with strong viewership, effective utilization of Peacock in a way that had not been seen before, strong ad sales, and just positive buzz/energy,” according to a recent analyst note from Deutsche Bank.
In the note, Deutsche Bank estimated the Olympics helped media revenue grow by nearly 40%, and said it expected Comcast to report 2.5 million Peacock additions for the quarter.
While broadband and streaming results often eclipse other units of the business, the performance of the theme parks will also be of interest.
Earnings for Universal’s theme parks began to cool down recently from a surge in attendance last year after Covid lockdowns. Last quarter theme parks revenue dropped nearly 11% year over year as attendance normalized.
Still, Comcast executives have said they remain “bullish” on the future of the business.
U.S. theme parks will likely continue to face tough comparisons, while international parks are expected to have a better performance, according to Deutsche Bank’s note. The effects of Hurricane Helene in Florida toward the end of the third quarter likely curtailed park hours and could have a small impact on results, the note said.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC. NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.
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