Comcast Corp., the world’s largest cable-television provider – which has 700,000 subscribers in Colorado – reported a 7 percent increase in second-quarter profit and raised its full-year sales forecast after signing up more telephone customers than analysts estimated.
The shares had their biggest gain in three years after Philadelphia-based Comcast won 306,000 subscribers for its phone service, which is provided over the company’s cable lines. Additions beat a 250,000 estimate by UBS AG analyst Aryeh Bourkoff and signal Comcast is succeeding in efforts to take business from traditional phone- service providers such as AT&T Inc.
The gains helped drive sales up 11 percent to $6.23 billion, Comcast said in a statement today. Second-quarter net income rose to $460 million, or 22 cents a share, from $430 million, or 19 cents, a year earlier.
Comcast shares rose $1.78, or 5.5 percent, to $34.30 at 12:17 p.m. New York time after rising as much as 5.6 percent earlier in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. They had gained 25 percent this year through yesterday.
