Viacom posts 3Q profit

Viacom Inc. reported some of the weakest domestic advertising and viewership results among media companies this week, fanning the flames of an industrywide stock meltdown amid questions about the future health of the TV ecosystem.

Viacom’s movie slate for the fourth quarter includes “Terminator: Genisys” and “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation“, which are expected to drive revenue. Citigroup Inc. upgraded Viacom from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $64.00 to $63.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Wall After falling 7 percent yesterday, the cable programmer’s stock is down another 10 percent this morning.

Filmed entertainment revenue dropped 44 per cent as theatrical revenue almost halved.

Still, worldwide growth from affiliate fees -2% – boosted cable networks’ overall revenue to come in flat versus the same quarterly period a year before – $2.6 billion.

Worldwide home entertainment revenue fell 30 percent, to $199 million in the quarter, and ancillary revenue declined 43 percent, “primarily driven by the benefit in the prior year of the sale of certain distribution rights”, Viacom said. Analysts had projected $1.47 a share in profit on $3.2 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

Viacom’s total expenses for the quarter declined 15 percent from the year-ago period to $1.97 billion.

Viacom (NASDAQ:VIAB) released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday.

Viacom Inc. (VIA) on Thursday reported fiscal third-quarter profit of $591 million.

Till just some months in the past, Viacom was shopping for again shares, serving to to spice up its earnings per share. The company said it would resume the buybacks this fall.

Yesterday Wall Street hammered all of the big TV stocks. That sparked the media inventory sell-off, and Viacom has been notably hard-hit. “Change can create uncertainty and concern, however with change additionally comes alternative”. Institutional Investors own 90.7% of Company shares. Viacom’s shares closed at $51.41 on Wednesday on the Nasdaq.

Dauman additionally sought to reassure buyers that Paramount was poised for a comeback.

“With the success of our first Paramount Animation feature, our unparalleled marketing capability and increased production across genres, the studio is stepping up its output and will be back up to its annual target of 15 films in 2016”, Dauman said. Viacom also cited the coming launch of “Minority Report“, a new drama on Fox, from its Paramount Television unit.