Dish Network
The nation’s No. 2 satellite television provider reported a disappointing fourth-quarter profit Tuesday as subscriber growth slowed amid tough competition and a sluggish economy.
The Douglas County-based company posted a 14 percent increase in net income and a 12 percent rise in revenue for the quarter, but chief executive Charlie Ergen called the results disappointing from a sales perspective.
Net income totaled $175 million, or 39 cents per share, missing analysts’ expectations for the quarter ending Dec. 31. The latest results compared with $153 million, or 35 cents, a year earlier.
Revenue rose to $2.89 billion.
Liberty Global
The international cable-TV operator said Tuesday its fourth-quarter net loss widened significantly because of higher interest and taxes and write-downs.
Douglas County-based Liberty Global reported a net loss of $197.2 million, or 54 cents a share, in the October-December quarter, compared with a net loss of $31.2 million, or 8 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 38 percent to $2.46 billion from $1.78 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast, on average, a net loss of 21 cents a share on revenue of $2.38 billion.
Target
The discount-store operator said fourth-quarter profits slipped on poor holiday sales and a quirk in the earnings calendar, but results were slightly better than Wall Street had expected amid a dismal period for retailers.
Target said Tuesday that earnings fell 8 percent to $1.03 billion, or $1.23 per share, from $1.12 billion, or $1.29 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting $1.22 per share.
Revenue edged up nearly 1 percent to $19.87 billion, from $19.71 billion last year. Analysts expected revenue of $20 billion.
Macy’s
The department store operator said its profit edged up 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter as a tax settlement helped offset weaker-than-expected sales.
Macy’s said Tuesday its profit rose to $750 million, or $1.73 per share, in the three months ended Feb. 2, from $733 million, or $1.40 per share, a year earlier.
But revenue fell 6 percent to $8.59 billion from $9.15 billion a year ago.
Excluding integration costs stemming from its acquisition of May Department Stores Co. in 2005, a tax settlement and other items, net income was $1.65 per share, a nickel ahead of the estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.
CBS
The TV network came through a writers’ strike relatively unscathed but issued a mild outlook for profit growth in 2008.
CBS earned $286.2 million, or 42 cents per share, in the three months ending in December, down from $335 million, or 43 cents per share, in the same period a year ago. Revenues fell 3 percent to $3.76 billion from $3.88 billion a year ago.
