DirecTV Group Inc. said its fourth quarter profit rose 16 percent, boosted by subscriber gains.
The El Segundo company, the nation’s largest satellite TV provider, on Thursday reported net income of $718 million ($1.02 a share) compared with $618 million (74 cents) in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 13 percent to $7.46 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters on average expected the company to report earnings of 92 cents a share on revenue of $7.41 billion.
The company, which serves 32 million subscribers, added a net 590,000 subscribers in Latin America and a net 125,000 in the U.S. It also had higher average revenue per subscriber. The revenue growth was offset by higher programming costs.
“Our fourth quarter results capped off another strong year of industry leading growth as we further extended our position as the world’s largest provider of pay television services,” Chief Executive Mike White said in a statement.
Shares closed down 92 cents, or less than 2 percent, to $45.38 on the Nasdaq.