The company adjusted EPS for the first nine months of 2013 of $3.89. Adjusted earnings do not include a pretax charge taken in the first quarter of $166 million related to the devaluation of Venezuela’s currency .
DirecTV added 139,000 U.S. subscribers in the third quarter, and average revenue per customer rose 6.2% to $102.37. Revenue per customer rose because the DirecTV collected higher fees for its advanced receivers, increased pricing on its programming packages, charged higher warranty fees and experienced higher pay-per-view revenues. The total U.S. subscriber count rose from 19.98 million to 20.16 million in the 12 months to September 2013.
In the company’s Latin American division, the net subscriber count grew by 260,000, which was less than half the growth in the same period a year ago. Average revenue per customer fell 11.7% to $49.42, primarily due to currency effects. The company said that stripping out currency effects average revenue per user rose 3.7%.
The company’s CEO said:
We continue to extend our position as the world’s largest Pay TV service by leveraging the strength of our premier brands and our differentiated suite of products and services across the Americas to drive industry leading growth.
The company did not offer guidance in its press release, but the consensus estimates call for fourth-quarter EPS of $1.28 on revenues of $8.49 billion. For the full year, EPS are expected to total $4.72 on revenues of $31.62 billion.
Shares were about 2.5% higher in premarket trading Tuesday, at $66.00 in a 52-week range is $47.71 to $67.85. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $68.00 before this report.
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