CBS (CBS, $38.02) beats Q3 earnings expectations; misses revenue estimates

CBS Corp. posted third quarter earnings that beat expectations. Revenue, however, fell shy of estimates.

The media conglomerate’s earnings for the quarter came in at 95 cents per share, which is 3 cents ahead of analysts’ consensus estimate. The figure is down -23.4% from the year-ago period, though.

Total revenues increased modestly to $3.3 billion, and was below analysts' estimates of $3.58 billion.

During the quarter, the company’s direct-to-consumer revenue from CBS All Access and Showtime OTT grew +39% from the prior year.

CEO Joe Ianniello added that CBS’s content licensing revenue is also growing as the company ramps up production of programming for all of its platforms.

The company’s affiliate and subscription revenues surged +12%. Content licensing and distribution revenues climbed +1%. But ad revenues were -7% lower, compared to last year.

In December, CBS is expected to complete its $30 billion merger with Viacom Inc.

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Sergey Savastiouk|Expert

Sergey Savastiouk, Ph.D. has a degree in Applied Mathematics from Moscow University and has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, investor, manager, and mathematician. His professional expertise is in applied mathematics, mathematical modeling, system and pattern analysis, and software and hardware system integration. He has served as the CEO of several hi-tech start-up companies and nonprofit organizations, which has given him proven capabilities in business strategy for high-tech start-up companies, market assessment, company formation, team building, product development, marketing, and sales. He has published numerous articles in journals and magazines on related fields. As a retail investor, he spent 15 years developing his proprietary trading and quantitative algorithms (now Tickeron’s A.I.), which brought him significant returns in trading the stock market. His current work and goal in founding Tickeron is to bring professional, sophisticated stock market analysis capabilities to retail investors via an easy-to-use interface.