Twenty-First Century Fox Profit Down, But Tops View

(RTTNews) - Twenty-First Century Fox Inc., (FOXA, FOX) on Monday reported a second-quarter profit that dropped from last year, hurt largely by lower revenues as strong cable and television advertising revenues were offset by lower filmed entertainment division. Earnings for the quarter trumped Wall Street estimates by a penny, but revenues fell short of expectations. Fox reported second-quarter profit of $672 million or $0.34 per share, down from $6.21 billion or $2.88 per share last year.

On an adjusted basis, earnings were $855 million or $0.44 per share, down from $1.13 billion or $0.53 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.43 per share for the quarter.

Revenues for the quarter fell to $7.38 billion from $8.06 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $7.54 billion for the quarter.

The year-ago revenues included revenues of $631 million from Fox's direct broadcast satellite television business, Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland AG, which the company sold to Sky Plc (SKYB.L) in November 2014. Excluding revenues from the direct broadcast satellite business, revenue fell 1 percent.

Revenue in the cable-network segment rose 9 percent from last year to $3.70 billion, due to growth in affiliate revenues and advertising revenues, Fox said.

Revenue in the filmed entertainment segment decreased 14 percent to $2.36 billion, reflecting the absence of last year's blockbusters "X-Men: Days of Futures Past" and "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes."

Television revenue rose 6 percent to $1.72 billion, reflecting strong retransmission consent revenue growth and a 4 percent increase in advertising revenue.

FOX closed Wednesday's trading at $24.54, down $0.50 or 2.00% on the Nasdaq.