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Cable earnings improve
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May 8, 2001: 11:22 a.m. ET
Comcast, Cablevision cite profits after earlier losses; comparisons difficult
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Two cable television companies reported improved first-quarter results, although the numbers were not clearly comparable to Wall Street forecasts.
Comcast (CMCSK: down $0.66 to $44.84, Research, Estimates) said reported earnings from operations of $616.7 million, or 64 cents a share, excluding a gain from an accounting change. It said that number compares with a loss of $186.4 million, or 23 cents a share, a year earlier.
But the company also said that it had a pro forma net loss, which takes into account various acquisitions, amounting to $290.6 million, or 30 cents a share, which it said compared to a pro forma net loss of $132.1 million, or 17 cents a share, in the year earlier period.
Earnings tracker First Call said it could not equate the company's earnings statements to the forecasts of the six analysts it said followed the company. Its forecast had called for a loss of 34 cents a share, compared with a 19 cent loss in the year earlier period. But investors were apparently disappointed with the improved results, as shares of both its class of shares fell in trading Tuesday following the report.
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Revenue increased 13.3 percent to $2.2 billion in the quarter. The company repeated its earlier guidance for most of its operations, although it raised its cash flow growth guidance for its cable operations.
Cablevision Systems Corp., a Bethpage, N.Y.-based cable operator which also owns several professional sports teams, a chain of movie theaters and the Nobody Beats The Wiz electronics store chain, posted a profit due to a $1.1 billion gain sale of cable assets in Massachusetts to AT&T Corp. (T: down $0.34 to $22.13, Research, Estimates).
The company said that brought net income to $1.1 billion, or $4.97 a share, compared with the net loss of $115.5 million, or 67 cents a share it reported in the year-earlier results.
But the company did not break out results excluding the gain on sale of assets. It also did not give separate results for its core business, Cablevision NY Group (CVC: Research, Estimates) and the company's separately-traded Rainbow Media Group (RMG: up $0.15 to $23.05, Research, Estimates), which includes a number of cable television stations, including American Movie Classics, the Independent Film Channel, and a series of regional sports channels outside the New York region.
First Call, which excludes the RMG results as well as the gain from the asset sale, forecast of a loss of $1.25 a share for the Cablevision NY Group. RMG was seen earning 5 cents a share by itself. 
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