CBS Trades Higher on 4Q Earnings Growth

CBS (NYSE:CBS) touched all-time highs on Thursday after posting 20% growth in its fourth-quarter earnings, as revenue from content licensing and distribution soared.

The company also announced it will accelerate share repurchases of Class B stock by $1.5 billion. It plans to buy back a total of $2 billion in stock during the first quarter.

Following Wednesday’s closing bell, CBS reported a profit of $470 million, or 76 cents a share, up from $393 million, or 60 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, adjusted per-share earnings climbed to 78 cents from 64 cents.

Revenue rose 5.8% to $3.91 billion. Content licensing and distribution revenue was up 28% in the latest period, while subscription and affiliate fees increased 7.3%. Advertising revenue, the largest top-line contributor, ticked 0.5% lower to $2.4 billion.

Analyst expected adjusted earnings of 76 cents a share and total revenue of $3.82 billion.

CBS has recently been lifted by higher retransmission fees paid by cable and satellite distributors. In addition, the company is benefiting from licensing agreements with streaming video providers like Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX).

CBS plans to wrap up an IPO for its CBS Outdoor Americas business, which owns billboards around the country, in the current quarter.

Shares jumped 4.5% to $64.66 in recent trading. The stock went as high as $64.90, a new high for CBS.