Three Things to Look For in Comcast Earnings Results Before Thursday's Open

Comcast (CMCSA) is set to report earnings before the opening bell Thursday, July 23rd. This has been a challenging quarter for the company after a failed Time Warner Cable (TWX) merger, low ratings for NBC, and the continuing trend of people cutting their cord and dropping their cable TV subscriptions. Despite these headwinds, Comcast is expected to show double digit profit growth for its fifteenth consecutive quarter. Tuna Amobi, equity analyst at S&P Capital IQ shared what he is expecting from the media and cable giant. Amobi believes that Comcast ‘has been executing really well over the last several years’ but thinks that the company is in a ‘reset mode’ after its failed merger with Time Warner. Amobi is expecting to see strong growth from the cable division to be driven by high speed data and the penetration of bundle offerings. While the commercial business is growing ‘north of 20%,’ Amobi finds the NBC Universal turnaround to be an even more important story from the Comcast’s earnings report. ‘NBC has been firing on all cylinders,’ Amobi said. ‘From the theme parks, to the networks, to the film studio, we think this is going to be a very significant quarter from Comcast.’ The three things Amobi will be watching in the report will be high speed data growth, which became the largest business for Comcast in terms of subscribers last quarter, any unexpected operating cash flow deceleration from NBC as a result of the troublesome ratings, and lastly, Amobi is looking for the company to reaffirm its commitment to return capital to shareholders, which is expected to come to $7 billion by the end of the year.