Time Warner Cable Beats Q4 Earnings, Revenues

Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC – Analyst Report) reported better-than-expected financial numbers in the fourth quarter of 2015 wherein both the top line and the bottom line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

Quarterly GAAP net income came in at $486 million or $1.70 per share compared with $554 million or $1.96 per share in the prior-year quarter. Quarterly adjusted (excluding special items) earnings per share of $1.80 beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.79.

Quarterly total revenue came in at $6,072 million, up 4.9% year over year and ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $6,034 million.

Quarterly adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) fell 0.4% year over year to $2,132 million. Also, operating income declined 8.2% year over year to $1,125 million.

In the reported quarter, Time Warner Cable generated $1,883 million of cash from operations compared with $1,810 million in the year-ago quarter. Free cash flow in the fourth quarter of 2015 was $883 million against $891 million in the prior-year quarter.

At the end of fourth-quarter 2015, Time Warner Cable had $1,170 million in cash and cash equivalents compared with $707 million at the end of 2014. Total long-term debt stood at $22,497 million against $22,604 million at 2014-end. At the end of the reported quarter, the debt-to-capitalization ratio stood at 0.71 in comparison to 0.74 at the end of 2014.

Residential Services Segment

Quarterly total revenue was $4,811 million, up 4.6% year over year. Within the segment, video revenues totalled $2,471 million, up 0.3% from the prior-year quarter. High-speed data revenues were $1,819 million, up 10.6% year over year. Voice revenues came in at $497 million, up 5.7% year over year. Other revenues were $24 million, up 4.3% from the year-ago quarter.

Subscriber Statistics: In fourth-quarter 2015, video subscriber count decreased by 54,000 to 10.821 million. High-speed data subscribers rose by 281,000 to 12.675 million. Voice subscriber tally increased 227,000 to 6.320 million. Single-play added 43,000 to reach 5.752 million while double-play subscribers lost 48,000 to 4.067 million. The triple-play customer base added 205,000, taking its total count to 5.310 million.