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Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA) saw second quarter sales up 3.5% and profits up 14.9% on its earnings release this morning (Tuesday), for an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.76. While Comcast sales were below analyst estimates, according to data from Yahoo! Finance, Comcast stock was still trading up in the morning 1.7% at $54.75.
CMCSA announced $16.8 billion in revenue and $1.99 billion in profits this quarter, both up from the same reporting period last year. The cable industry leader beat the average analyst estimate of $0.72 earnings per share on the quarter, though it fell short of the $16.95 billion revenue estimate and the 4.2% sales growth figure.
Revenue from cable communications increased 5.4% to $11 billion, with the biggest boosts coming from a 9.7% increase in high-speed internet sales and a 22.4% increase in business services revenue.
The cable giant saw its best second quarter for high-speed internet in six years with 203,000 additional customers, while also increasing its home phone service customers by 137,000. However, it shed 144,000 customers from its video subscriber business. Despite the loss of video customers, it was the best performing second quarter for that division of the business in six years.
Here's more on what Comcast's earnings tell investors about the direction of Comcast stock going forward.
CMCSA's Long-Term Challenges and Strengths
Looking ahead, Comcast's television business will continue to face challenges because of competition from less traditional services such as Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), according to Morningstar analyst Michael Hodel, though it has to this point held together well.
"Comcast's traditional television business faces threats from emerging video offerings from the likes of Netflix," Hodel wrote in an investment note. "We believe Comcast has responded well to these threats thus far, building new platforms – such as its online site and iPad application – to enhance the options available to customers."
NBCUniversal, the media company that CMCSA owns, saw very modest revenue growth of 0.3%.