Comcast's Q1 Earnings Surpass Estimates, Revenues Decline Y/Y

Comcast CMCSA reported first-quarter 2025 adjusted earnings of $1.09 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 11.22% and increased 4.8% year over year.

Consolidated revenues decreased 0.6% year over year to $29.88 billion. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.69%.

Quarter Details of CMCSA

Connectivity & Platforms revenues (67.4% of revenues) declined 0.7% year over year to $20.13 billion in the reported quarter. Under the segment, Residential Connectivity & Platforms revenues decreased 1.3% year over year at $17.6 billion. Business Services Connectivity revenues rose 3.7% year over year to $2.49 billion. Total Customer Relationships for Connectivity & Platforms decreased 228K to 51.4 million, primarily reflecting a decline in domestic customer relationships.

Total domestic broadband customer net losses were 199K. Total domestic wireless line net additions were 323K, while total domestic video customer net losses were 427K. Content & Experiences revenues (35% of revenues) inched up 0.8% year over year to $10.45 billion. 

Under the segment, Media revenues rose 1.1% year over year to $6.44 billion, primarily driven by higher international networks revenues, partially offset by lower domestic advertising revenues. Peacock’s paid subscribers increased 20.6% year over year to 41 million. Peacock’s revenues in the first quarter jumped 16% to $1.2 billion.

Studios increased 3% year over year to $2.82 billion due to higher content licensing and other revenues, partially offset by lower theatrical revenues. Theatrical revenues decreased primarily due to higher revenues from releases in the prior-year period, including Kung Fu Panda 4 and Migration, compared with releases in the current quarter like Dog Man, as well as the carryover benefit of Wicked and Nosferatu.

Theme Parks revenues declined 5.2% year over year to $1.87 billion, primarily due to lower revenues at domestic theme parks, driven by lower guest attendance, including the impact of the Hollywood wildfires.

Comcast Corporation Stock Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Comcast Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Comcast Corporation Quote

Operating Details of CMCSA

Costs and expenses in the first quarter of 2025 declined marginally by 0.1% year over year to $24.22 billion.

Programming & production costs decreased 4.6% from the year-ago quarter to $8.41 billion. Marketing and promotional expenses increased 2.6% year over year to $2.07 billion.

Adjusted EBITDA increased 1.9% from the year-ago quarter to $9.53 billion. 

Total Connectivity & Platforms adjusted EBITDA rose 1.5% year over year to $8.34 billion. Content & Experiences adjusted EBITDA was $1.49 billion, down 0.1% year over year.

CMCSA Cash Flow & Liquidity

As of March 31, 2025, cash and cash equivalents were $8.59 billion, which decreased from $7.32 billion as of Dec. 31, 2024.

As of March 31, 2025, consolidated total debt was $99.12 billion compared with $99.09 billion as of Dec. 31, 2024.

In the first quarter of 2024, Comcast generated $8.29 billion in cash from operations, which increased from $8.08 billion reported in the previous quarter. Free cash flow was $5.42 billion in the reported quarter, which increased from $3.26 billion reported in the previous quarter. (Find the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.)

Comcast paid dividends totaling $1.2 billion and repurchased 56.2 million of its shares for $2 billion, resulting in a total return of capital to shareholders of $3.2 billion, also reducing shares outstanding by 5%.

CMCSA Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider

Currently, Comcast carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector are Stride LRN, Atlanta Braves Holding Inc. BATRK and Fox Corporation FOXA. While LRN and BATRK sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) each, FOXA carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of Stride have gained 34.8% year to date. LRN is set to report third-quarter fiscal 2025 results on April 29.

Shares of BATRK have risen 1.7% year to date. It is slated to report first-quarter 2025 results on May 12.

Shares of Fox have lost 1.5% year to date. It is set to report third-quarter fiscal 2025 results on May 12.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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