If Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) were still just a cable company, it would be in trouble, according to the latest commentary from Jefferies equity analyst Mike McCormack, who lowered the company's video growth outlook but raised its NBCUniversal forecast.
Video and total cable revenue forecasts were lowered by a "reduction in video ARPU growth expectations," the equity analyst wrote in a company note. Comcast's video net subscriber loss remained at 40,000.
Even with all the negatives, Jefferies forecast "5.7 percent cable growth" in the first quarter.
NBCU, on the other hand, was a different story, based primarily on box office results from Universal movies and TV ratings from the Sochi Olympics.
"Driven by strong ad sales and attractive ratings, we now estimate more than $1 billion of revenue from the Olympics in the broadcast segment (and) anticipate Comcast will report a modest growth on the games," McCormack wrote. "We also raise our film revenue estimate by 3 percent to $1.3 billion on healthy results from Ride Along, Lone Survivor and most recently, Non-Stop."
For more:
- read this analyst note
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