Cablevision Q4 Earnings, Revenue Fall Below Expectations

Shares of Cablevision Systems Corp. were down less than 1% in premarket trade after the company reported net income of $32.15 million, or 12 cents per share for the fourth quarter. That's a significant decline compared with earnings of $55.98 million, or 21 cents per share in the year earlier period. The FactSet consensus for per share earnings during the quarter was 14 cents. Revenue for the quarter was $1.629 billion, a less than 1% decline compared with last year's $1.631 billion. FactSet's revenue consensus was $1.64 billion. Cable subscribers declined by 10,000, but that was offset by an addisition of 25,000 Internet subscribers. The cable, phone and Internet provider added 13,000 total customers in the quarter across all services. Cablevision suspended its share buyback program and doesn't plan to pay any dividends as it as awaits its acquisition by Altice to close. The company expects the deal to close during the second quarter.