Vivendi SA’s share price down, reveals quarterly earnings that beat analysts’ estimates, concentrates on media and entertainment

Vivendi SA made an official statement revealing quarterly adjusted profit that surpassed analysts estimates as its revenue increased thanks to the companys pay-TV business.

According to the companys statement, the adjusted net profit increased by 20% and reached 161 million euros (221 million dollars) compared to analysts expectations of a 142.8 million-euro profit. Vivendi also reported that its quarterly sales decreased by 3.7% to 2.72 billion euros, trailing analysts estimates of 2.73 billion-euro sales.

Over the past year, Vivendi has undergone through some extreme reorganization. It sold a great part of its stakes in Activision Blizzard Inc. and Maroc Telecom, as well as its SFR unit. The company has been putting its efforts into reducing its size and becoming more focused on media and entertainment businesses.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Chief Executive Officer of Vivendi – Francois Dubos said: “Our transformation into a media and content [company] is coming to an end. We have good reason to be optimistic and believe in our strategy. (…) Vivendis restored financial situation leaves some margins for maneuver for acquisitions.”

The company explained that it intends to concentrate on completing the sale of its SFR unit until the end of 2014 and will continue to seek for new ways for expanding its reach once the deal is finalized. Vivendi SA reached an agreement with Altices Numericable Group over the sale of its SFR division in April 2014. The deal is estimated to 23 billion dollars and is expected to be finalized by the end of the year.

The companys Chief Executive Officer Mr. Herve Philippe also commented on the companys quarterly results on a conference call, which was cited by Bloomberg: “For the first time we’re unveiling numbers that show the new Vivendi – Vivendi media. We’re growing in the first quarter, that makes us reasonably optimistic for the rest of the year.”

Vivendi SA was losing 0.55% to trade at 18.83 euros per share by 13:16 GMT, marking a one year change of +19.78%. According to the information published on the Financial Times, the 20 analysts offering 12-month price targets for Vivendi SA have a median target of 22.00, with a high estimate of 27.00 and a low estimate of 16.90. The median estimate represents a 16.19% increase from the last price of 18.94.