Comcast Corp.’s share price up, reveals a 30% increase in its first-quarter profit as it adds new cable TV subscribers

Comcast Corp., which is currently considered as the biggest cable company in the U.S., made an official statement, announcing its results for the first quarter of the current financial year. The company revealed that its first-quarter profit increased by 30% due to video subscriber growth. In its statement Comcast reported that its revenue amounted 17.4 billion dollars, more than 17 billion-dollar revenue, forecast by analysts.

The first-quarter net income of the company amounted to 1.87 billion dollars, which makes 71 cents a share, an increase from the 1.44-billion-dollar profit posted for the same period in 2013. The adjusted earnings per share were reported to have increased from 51 to 68 cents a share.

The Internet and video company continued to add new video subscribers for a second quarter in a row. During the first quarter of 2014, the company managed to add 24 000 video customers to reach a total of 22.6 million subscribers. In the last quarter of 2013, Comcast made a breakthrough, snapping 26 quarters of declines in a row.

The upbeat quarterly results posted by Comcast Corp. benefited from the Olympics, which the company aired on its NBC channels. The company is planning to expand even more by purchasing Time Warner Cable. As reported earlier, Netflix Chief Executive Officer opposed the deal, which would account for a bit above 38% of the entire broadband market in the U.S. when finalised.

Comcasts overall performance is improving and the company may become even larger in case regulators give their approval of the proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable Inc., estimated to 45 billion dollars.

Comcast Corp. was 3.01% up to trade at $51.38 by 14:20 GMT, marking a one-year change of -1.13%. According to the information published on CNN Money, the 22 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Comcast Corp. have a median target of 60.00, with a high estimate of 68.00 and a low estimate of 52.00. The median estimate represents a +20.29% increase from the last price of 49.88.