Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) reported its financial results for the full year and three months ending 31 December 2009.
Fourth-quarter Revenues increased 2% from the same period in 2008 to US$7.3 billion, and Adjusted OIBDA climbed 35% to US$1.5 billion, due mainly to growth at the Networks and Filmed Entertainment segments. Operating Income was US$1.2 billion, compared to an Operating Loss in the prior year fourth quarter of US$6.3 billion, including the US$7.2 billion in noncash asset impairment charges.
In the fourth quarter, the Company posted Adjusted EPS of US$0.55 versus US$0.19 for the year-ago quarter. Diluted Income per Common Share from Continuing Operations was US$0.51 for the three months ended 31 December 2009, compared to the Diluted Loss per Common Share from Continuing Operations of US$5.46 for the prior year quarter.
Company’s board of directors increased the Company’s regular quarterly dividend by 13.3% to US$0.2125 per share.
For the full year ended 31 December 2009, Time Warner posted net income of US$2.5 billion, or US$2.07 per diluted common share. The earnings are in stark contrast to the losses of US$13.4 billion, or US$11.23 per diluted common share in the previous year. Adjusted earnings per share stood at US$1.83 for the full year while the last year's figure was US$1.42 for full year 2008. Other income, lower finance charges and a decline in Time Warner's effective tax rate were some of the reasons behind the increase in adjusted EPS.
Income from continuing operations for the full year stood at US$2.1 billion, or US$1.74 per diluted common share. The income figure is a big improvement from previous year's losses from continuing operations in 2008 of US$5.1 billion, or US$4.27 per diluted common share.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes said: "Time Warner achieved all of our goals in 2009. We posted strong growth in Adjusted EPS, despite the difficult economy. Our studio and networks achieved record profits, while investing even more in programming and production.”
Coming to Time Warner US$5billion stock repurchase program, till February 2, 2010 it has purchased 100 million shares of common stock for US$4.2billion. Still US$1.0billion short of their US$5 billion stock repurchase program announced on August 1, 2007.
On January 28, 2010 board of directors increased the repurchase program amount to US$3.0 billion.
