DirecTV Misses By Four Cents Per Share

Election Day is finally here. I’m not in the business of trying to predict who will win, but I think the market will be very pleased to have the uncertainty behind us. The S&P 500 is back over 1,420 this morning but I don’t expect much price action this week.

The weak spot on the Buy List today is DirecTV ($DTV). The satellite TV company missed earnings by four cents per share. For their Q3, DirecTV earned 90 cents per share compared with Wall Street’s consensus of 94 cents per share. The good news is that revenue rose 8.4% to $7.42 billion which was $110 million better than consensus.

DirecTV added 543,000 net subscribers in Latin America, fewer than the 585,000 estimate from nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The disappointing results may indicate a deterioration in the region’s economies, especially Venezuela, said Chris Marangi, a portfolio manager at Gamco Investors Inc. whose funds own 7.4 million DirecTV shares.

Latin American customer additions fell from 645,000 in the quarter ended in June. Last year, DirecTV reported 574,000 new Latin American users in the third quarter, an increase from the prior three-month period.

DirecTV added 67,000 net U.S. customers, less than the 99,000 average analyst estimate. The company has tried to entice subscribers with National Football League Sunday Ticket promotions, which give new customers access to all Sunday football games for free for a year. DirecTV also lowered the price for Sunday Ticket for current customers.

I also forgot to mention the good earnings report last Friday from Moog ($MOG-A). The company reported earnings 91 cents per share which was two cents better than estimates. Moog earned 83 cents per share for the same quarter one year ago.

This was for their fiscal fourth quarter. For the entire year, Moog earned $3.33 per share which was a nice increase over the $2.95 per share they earned in the year before that. Moog reiterated its earnings forecast of $3.50 to $3.70 per share for the coming year. That’s a very good number.

“Over the last three years, sales have increased 34% and earnings per share are up 68%,” said John Scannell, CEO. “We have delivered this improvement despite the reduced military spending and the tepid industrial recovery. We believe our diversity across markets and geographies, as well as our excellent position on the most important military and commercial programs has been the key to this strong performance and we’re confident these factors will continue to benefit us in 2013.”

I think Moog is one of the cheaper stocks on our Buy List.

Posted by on November 6th, 2012 at 10:38 am


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.

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