Twenty-First Century Fox Q4 Profit Tops Street - Update

(RTTNews) - Twenty-First Century Fox Inc., (FOXA, FOX) Wednesday reported an increase in profit for the fourth quarter, driven largely by increase in revenues across all segments. Earnings for the quarter trumped Wall Street estimates as did revenues.

Fox's fourth-quarter profit rose to $567 million or $0.30 per share from $87 million or $0.04 per share last year.

On an adjusted basis, earnings were $845 million or $0.45 per share, up from $800 million or $0.39 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.36 per share for the quarter.

Revenues for the quarter rose 7 percent to $6.65 billion from $6.21 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $6.62 billion for the quarter.

Revenue growth reflects higher affiliate and advertising revenues at both the Cable Network Programming and Television segments partially as well as on higher content revenues at the Filmed Entertainment segment.

Revenue in the cable-network segment rose 10 percent from last year to $3.92 billion, while television revenue gained 5 percent to $1.04 billion. Filmed entertainment segment increased $2.04 billion from $1.91 billion last year.

Operating costs rose to $4.23 billion from $3.79 billion last year.

FOX closed Wednesday's trading at $7.42, up $0.38 or 1.41%, on the NYSE. The stock further gained $0.59 or 2.15% in the after-hours trading.