Twenty-First Century (FOXA) Q3 Earnings: What's In Store?

Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. (NASDAQ:FOXA) is slated to report third-quarter fiscal 2016 results on May 4, after the closing bell. The big question facing investors now is, whether the company will be able to deliver a positive earnings surprise in the to-be-reported quarter after posting in-line earnings in the previous quarter.

Notably, in the previous three out of four quarters, the company surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate with a positive earnings surprise of 4%. Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Likely Earnings Beat in the Cards

Our proven model shows that Twenty-First Century Fox is likely to beat earnings estimates this quarter. A stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. The Most Accurate estimate is 47 cents, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at 46 cents for the company. So the ensuing difference, that is, an Earnings ESP of +2.17%, combined with the company’s Zacks Rank #3, makes us reasonably confident of an earnings beat.

We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Factors Influencing This Quarter

Management expects Cable Network Programming to drive the company’s fiscal 2016 financial performance on the back of rising affiliate fees. Affiliate fees are the dominant source of revenues for the Cable Network segment and also account for a major portion of the total revenue. In the past few months, the company’s Fox Business Network (“FBN”) organised the Grand Old Party’s (“GOP”) presidential debates which turned out to be a grand success.

According to Nielsen Media Research, FBN achieved new highs in viewership in the first three months of 2016. Higher ratings will not only increase the company’s advertising revenues but help in boosting subscriber growth.

However, the company’s international Cable and Film operations may be negatively impacted by the foreign currency exchange rate.

Stocks Poised to Beat Earnings Estimates

Here are some companies you may want to consider as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat:

Discovery Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA) has an Earnings ESP of +2.22% and a Zacks Rank #3.

Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST) has an Earnings ESP of +19.40% and a Zacks Rank #3.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) has an Earnings ESP of +1.55% and a Zacks Rank #3.