Time Warner Beats 2Q Estimates With Help From 'The Hangover Part II'

The entertainment giant ended 2Q with net income of $638M, up 13.5% vs the period last year, on revenues of $7B, up 10.2%. Earnings at 60 cents a share handily beat the Street's forecast of 56 cents. Analysts also anticipated revenues of $6.8B. The cable networks generated $3.5B in revenues, up 9% due to improvements in ad sales and deals for HBO originals including True Blood and Game Of Thrones. In filmed entertainment, sales of video games includingMortal Kombat 9 and home video income from Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 helped to raise revenues 13% to $2.8B. Publishing was the laggard, up 3% to $946M. CEO Jeff Bewkes noted that the company has bought back $2.3B of its shares so far in 2011 which reflects "our confidence in our competitive position and growth prospects." For what it's worth, the company slightly updated its profit outlook for 2011: In May it said that the percentage growth in its adjusted earnings per share would be in the low teens this year. Now it says the increase will be "at least" low teens.