Qurate Retail emerged from a loss in its third quarter last year to post a profit for the period this year, but revenues in the quarter decreased as the company missed a Wall Street estimate.
Net income was $1 million, or $0 per diluted share, versus net loss of $2.75 billion, or 7.21 per diluted share, in the year-before quarter, the company reported. Adjusted for one-time changes, net income was $40 million, or 10 cents per diluted share, versus a net loss of $29 million, or eight cents per diluted share, in the year-previous period.
A Yahoo Finance-published analyst estimate was for earnings of four cents per diluted share and revenues of $2.54 billion.
Qurate Retail revenue decreased 3% in the quarter to $2.48 billion in both U.S. dollars and constant currency, the company noted. The revenue figure does not account for the $200 million contribution of the since-sold Zulily business in the year-past quarter. By division, QXH, including QVC and HSN, posted revenue of $1.62 billion versus $1.66 billion in the year-earlier period; QVC International posted revenues of $577 million versus $554 million; and Cornerstone posted revenues of $285 million versus $327 million.
Operating income was $151 million versus an operating loss of $2.61 billion in the year-prior period, the company indicated. Adjusted operating income advanced to $285 million from $185 million in the period year over year. QXH operating income came in at $91 million versus a $2.25 billion operating loss in the year-prior quarter; QVC International operating income came in at $63 million versus $52 million; and Cornerstone operating income came in at $4 million versus $2 million.
“We are delivering on our Project Athens transformation as planned and have made tangible progress toward building a materially stronger profit and cash flow profile,” said David Rawlinson, Qurate president and CEO. “We produced strong adjusted OIBDA growth of over 50% as reported with increases at each of our businesses, sustained gross margin gains in our core video commerce businesses and grew free cash flow, all while moderating the decline in revenue compared to the first half of the year. While we have meaningful work still ahead of us, our third-quarter results strengthen our confidence in our ability to navigate the current challenged environment and to meet our Project Athens objectives. We reiterate our expectations for a double-digit CAGR on Adjusted OIBDA and free cash flow with stable revenues through 2024 compared to 2022.”
(Pictured above: David Venable of the QVC segment “In the Kitchen with David”)
