Cablevision Q1 Results Top Estimates On Rate Increases

(RTTNews) - Telecommunications and media company Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) report Thursday a profit for the first quarter compared to a loss last year, reflecting improved revenues amid rate increases and higher cable advertising revenues. Both earnings per share from continuing operations and quarterly revenues topped analysts' expectations.

"In the first quarter, Cablevision generated strong year-over-year financial results as well as solid growth in our high speed data and voice subscriber metrics. We continued to enhance the customer experience with industry leading products and our relentless focus on providing better service for our customers," President and CEO James Dolan said in a statement.

The Bethpage, New York-based company reported net income of $89.76 million or $0.33 per share for the first quarter, compared to a net loss of $16.14 million or $0.06 per share in the prior-year quarter.

Income from continuing operations for the quarter was $90.20 million or $0.34 per share, compared to a loss of $6.88 million or $0.03 per share in the year-ago quarter.

On average, 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.03 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net revenues for the quarter grew 4.3 percent to $1.58 billion from $1.51 billion in the same quarter last year and topped sixteen Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate of $1.56 billion by a whisker.

Cable revenues for the quarter grew 4.5 percent to $1.42 billion, primarily reflecting rate increases and higher advertising revenue, partially offset by a decline in video customers. Cable advertising revenue growth was 16.8 percent.

Average monthly cable revenue per customer, or RPC, grew 6.0 percent to $148.22, and average monthly revenue per video customer, or RPS, improved 7.7 percent to $168.34 from the year-ago quarter.

Compared to the year-ago quarter, the company recorded total customer losses of about 49,000, video customer losses of about 89,000, and voice customer losses of about 7,000. However, the company gained 2,000 High-speed data customers.

Lightpath revenue increased 5.2 percent to $86.75 million in the year-ago quarter, reflecting an increase in revenue from Ethernet services.

Meanwhile, other revenues declined 1.7 percent to $81.48 million from last year, reflectng lower advertising revenue at Newsday, partially offset by increased advertising revenue at News 12 Networks.

On Tuesday, Cablevision's board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share on each outstanding share of both its Class A and Class B stock, payable on June 13 to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 23, 2014.

In Thursday's regular trading session, CVC is currently trading at $17.24, up $0.68 or 4.11% on a volume of 0.87 million shares. In the past 52-week period, the stock has been trading in a range of $13.88 to $20.16.