Telecommunications and media company Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) reported Q1 CY2026 results topping the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 10.9% year on year to $31.46 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.79 per share was 8.3% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
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Comcast (CMCSA) Q1 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $31.46 billion vs analyst estimates of $30.44 billion (10.9% year-on-year growth, 3.4% beat)
- Adjusted EPS: $0.79 vs analyst estimates of $0.73 (8.3% beat)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $7.93 billion vs analyst estimates of $7.74 billion (25.2% margin, 2.4% beat)
- Operating Margin: 13.1%, down from 17% in the same quarter last year
- Free Cash Flow Margin: 12.4%, down from 19.1% in the same quarter last year
- Domestic Broadband Customers: down 2.99 million year on year
- Market Capitalization: $105.7 billion
Company Overview
Formerly known as American Cable Systems, Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is a multinational telecommunications company offering a wide range of services.
Revenue Growth
Examining a company’s long-term performance can provide clues about its quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years. Over the last five years, Comcast grew its sales at a weak 3% compounded annual growth rate. This was below our standard for the consumer discretionary sector and is a tough starting point for our analysis.
We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within consumer discretionary, a stretched historical view may miss a company riding a successful new product or trend. Comcast’s recent performance shows its demand has slowed as its revenue was flat over the last two years. 
We can better understand the company’s revenue dynamics by analyzing its number of domestic broadband customers and domestic video customers, which clocked in at 28.65 million and 10.95 million in the latest quarter. Over the last two years, Comcast’s domestic broadband customers averaged 2.7% year-on-year declines while its domestic video customers averaged 10.6% year-on-year declines. 
This quarter, Comcast reported year-on-year revenue growth of 10.9%, and its $31.46 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 3.4%.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to remain flat over the next 12 months. This projection is underwhelming and indicates its newer products and services will not catalyze better top-line performance yet.
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Operating Margin
Operating margin is a key measure of profitability. Think of it as net income - the bottom line - excluding the impact of taxes and interest on debt, which are less connected to business fundamentals.
Comcast’s operating margin has been trending down over the last 12 months and averaged 15.7% over the last two years. The company’s profitability was mediocre for a consumer discretionary business and shows it couldn’t pass its higher operating expenses onto its customers.
This quarter, Comcast generated an operating margin profit margin of 13.1%, down 3.8 percentage points year on year. This contraction shows it was less efficient because its expenses grew faster than its revenue.
Earnings Per Share
Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth – for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.
Comcast’s EPS grew at 8.5% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This performance was better than its revenue growth but doesn’t tell us much about its business quality because its operating margin improvement was less than peers.
In Q1, Comcast reported adjusted EPS of $0.79, down from $1.09 in the same quarter last year. Despite falling year on year, this print beat analysts’ estimates by 8.3%. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Comcast’s full-year EPS of $4 to shrink by 9.1%.
Key Takeaways from Comcast’s Q1 Results
We enjoyed seeing Comcast beat analysts’ adjusted operating income expectations this quarter. We were also happy its revenue outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, we think this was a solid quarter with some key areas of upside. The stock traded up 6.7% to $31.35 immediately following the results.
Comcast had an encouraging quarter, but one earnings result doesn’t necessarily make the stock a buy. Let’s see if this is a good investment. We think that the latest quarter is only one piece of the longer-term business quality puzzle. Quality, when combined with valuation, can help determine if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).
