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Time Warner said
its fourth-quarter net profit jumped 76 percent from a year ago to 1.127 billion dollars, with
cable television leading the improvement
(AFP) |
Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media
company, on Friday said its quarterly net
profit
rose by 76 percent, boosted by digital video,
high-speed Internet and higher advertising sales at its cable networks.
But its 2005 profit targets of high-single digit percentage growth fell
short of the most optimistic estimates,
"We would have liked to see double digits," Peter Mirsky, an analyst at
Oppenheimer & Co. said.
The New York-based company, which plans to restate 2000 to 2003
financial results to reflect accounting changes related to a Bertelsmann
transaction, said fourth-quarter net profit rose to $1.13 billion, or 24
cents a share, from $639 million, or 14 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding a series of one-time benefits, the company posted a profit of
20 cents a share, ahead of analyst estimates of 16 cents, according to
Reuters Estimates.
Revenue rose about 2 percent to $11.1 billion from $10.9 billion. Wall
Street had expected the company would post revenue of $11.16 billion,
according to Reuters Estimates.
Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Parsons, in a conference call with
analysts, said the company has completely rebounded from a chaotic past
that included government probes of its accounting, a $30 billion debt pile
and strategic missteps.
"We are now operating a fully settled down Time Warner," he said.
Wall Street had hoped for a more robust 2005 outlook from Time Warner,
now in the midst of a joint bid with Comcast Corp. to buy Adelphia
Communications Corp..
Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen said in a note that she
believed Time Warner "tends to be conservative in guidance so we are
comfortable Time Warner will at least meet our projections." She forecasts
8 percent 2005 profit growth.
Shares of Time Warner have languished since year-ago levels. "It's a
patience story," said Richard Steinberg, of Steinberg Global Assets, which
owns 42,000 shares of Time Warner. "Unfortunately lately, it's like
watching paint dry."
(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2005-02-05 10:50