ViacomCBS shares soar 10% premarket after first-quarter earnings beat estimates

ViacomCBS Inc. shares soared 10% in premarket trade Thursday, after the company posted stronger-than-expected earnings for the first quarter. The New York-based media and entertainment company said it had net income of $508 million, or 82 cents a share, down from $1.946 billion, or $3.15 a share, in the year-earlier period, when earnings were lifted by a tax benefit and a $549 million gain from the sale of CBS Television City. Adjusted per-share earnings came to $1.13, ahead of the 99 cents FactSet consensus. Revenue fell 6% to $6.669 billion from $7.100 billion, but was also ahead of the FactSet consensus of $6.620 billion. Ad revenue fell 19% from the year-earlier period. Affiliate revenue rose 1%, while domestic streaming and digital revenue rose 51% to $471 million. Content licensing revenue rose 9%, boosted by growth in original studio production for third parties. "Paramount Television Studios, CBS Television Studios and Cable Networks' studios all benefited from strong content deliveries during the quarter," the company said in a statement. Theatrical revenue fell 3% and publishing revenue rose 4%. The company raised $2.25 billion by selling bonds in April to bolster its liquidity position during the pandemic and has $3.5 billion in revolving credit capacity. The company has free cash flow of $305 million at the end of the first quarter and operating cash flow of $356 million. Shares have fallen 65% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 has fallen 12%.

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