Lions Gate Beats, Revs Climb

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (LGF) recently reported better-than-expected second quarter results. Total revenues climbed 3% year on year to $393.7 million driven by robust performance at television production segment and revenue contribution of $27.7 million from Media Networks acquired in February 2009.
 
Quarterly earnings of 26 cents a share outstripped the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 5 cents, and showed a substantial improvement from a loss of 44 cents posted in the prior-year quarter on the heels of lower theatrical marketing costs (down 66%).
 
Lions Gate delivered positive adjusted EBITDA of $54.4 million, compared to an EBITDA loss of $35.9 million reported in the year-ago quarter.
 
By segment, Motion Pictures revenues for the quarter fell 11% to $277.1 million, reflecting revenue declines across Theatrical (down 11%), Home Entertainment (down 25%) and International (down 4%) segments partially offset by gains in Television (up 10%) and Mandate Pictures (up 21%).
 
Television Production revenues jumped 30% to $88.9 million driven by a 14% increase in domestic series licensing revenues.
 
Lions Gate ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $112.7 million with film and production obligations of $293.7 million and shareholders’ equity of $170.7 million.
 
Lions Gate is a film studio, which produces and distributes motion pictures for theater and straight-to-video release, and television programming for the cable and broadcast networks.

Read the full analyst report on LGF