Comcast Q3 Earnings: EPS of $1.06 expected, as the company loses customers in its cable and broadband businesses

Telecommunication and media company Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) is expected to announce its third quarter earnings results on Thursday, October 31st, before the market opens, as investors remain skeptical whether the company has been able to boost profits despite certain industry-wide challenges.

Analysts, on consensus, expect the company to report EPS of $1.06, down 1.9% from last year, on revenue of $31.73B. The company has been facing challenges for some time in its traditional cable and broadcasting segments as viewers increasingly move towards streaming platforms.

Moreover, analysts seem to be worried about the company’s recent announcement of a data theft incident which affected a large number of its customers. Comcast (CMCSA) said it found out that a hacker obtained private information of nearly 238,000 customers in a data breach incident that occurred in July this year.

The cyber incident was first discovered in February when an unauthorized actor accessed systems operated by Financial Business and Consumer Solutions (FBCS), Comcast’s third-party service provider.

FBCS in March notified Comcast that it had experienced a data breach incident but said Comcast’s consumer data was not impacted. Months later, in July, FBCS’s investigations showed that the company’s data was, in fact, impacted.

The company has been consistently beating estimates, beating EPS estimates 100% of the time over the last two years. The company has beaten revenue estimates 88% of the time over the last two years.

Seeking Alpha analyst and Investing Group leader, The Value Portfolio, pointed out that Comcast (CMCSA) faces significant existential threats to its utility model, particularly from competitors like AT&T Fiber.

“Additionally, the company’s movie and studio business has continued to suffer, which combined with the company’s debt will hurt the ability to drive future returns,” the analyst added.

Comcast had reported mixed second-quarter results in the last quarter, as weakness in the company’s studios and parks business impacted top-line growth.

The company reported an adjusted $1.21 per share as sales fell 2.7% year-over-year to $29.69B. The company continued to see an exodus of broadband subscribers, losing 120,000 during the period, continuing the decline seen last quarter.

Over the last 3 months, EPS estimates have seen 6 upward revisions and 7 downward. Revenue estimates have seen 9 upward revisions and 4 downward.