Viacom's Profit Beats Expectations, But Sales Fall Shy

Viacom reported on Thursday fiscal first-quarter adjusted earnings, which exclude non-recurring items, of $538 million, or $1.29 a share, compared with $1.20 a share in the year-earlier period, and above the FactSet consensus analyst estimate of $1.28 a share. Revenue rose 5% to $3.34 billion, with media networks revenue rising 4% to $2.65 billion and filmed entertainment revenue up 6% to $720 million, compared with analyst forecasts of $3.4 billion, $2.7 billion and $715 million, respectively. Viacom's more-active Class B shares, which were still untraded ahead of the open, have lost 8.9% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 1%.