21st Century Fox Cable Networks Strong Amid Weak Results

Segment OIBDA comparisons were also adversely impacted by lower contributions from the television production businesses and a negative comparative 11 per cent impact from foreign exchange rate fluctuations. The film is a big success for Fox, but, because of its October release date, the film’s advertising budget was subtracted from the company’s earnings, while the film’s profits were not factored in. Now, as reported by The Wrap, the film’s studio is blaming the “Four’s” flame out with their less than stellar revenue during their first fiscal quarter of 2015. The most bullish, or positive target sees the stock going to $40 within the year, while the most bearish, or conservative analyst sees the stock at $39. It failed on all fronts, grossing less than $170 million worldwide and losing $80 million for the studio. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on Twenty-First Century Fox from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 20th.

The year ago income included asset sales by BSkyB.

Rupert Murdoch’s film and TV company, posted first-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ estimates, hurt by the costly flop of “Fantastic Four” and the strong dollar.

“We are all united in the view that this is a time of transformative change in our industry”, Lachlan Murdoch said.

21st Century Fox saw its revenue drop to $6.1 billion (€5.6bn) for its first quarter of 2016, falling six per cent from $6.5 billion for the same period in the prior year.

Taking a look at the earnings surprise factor, analysts had expected $0.4 for the quarter. In particular, Fox News Channel and its sports networks tallied high advertising revenues. There was a 5% decline in advertising revenues due to a shorter run of National Football League broadcasts and fewer political spots.

“FS1 is making real headway… and is on or above plans in all metrics”, James Murdoch said. Topeka Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Twenty-First Century Fox from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday.

At the main Cable Network Programming unit revenues improved 7.2% to $3.46 billion with cash flow up 25.8% to $1.31 billion. Overall revenue in the business was flat at $1.05 billion. Segment operating income of $196 million represented a 13% increase. Programming costs were lower at the Fox Broadcast Network and TV stations. Finally, CLSA lowered their target price on shares of Twenty-First Century Fox from $40.00 to $36.50 in a research note on Thursday, August 6th.