Time Warner said its fourth-quarter net profit jumped 76 percent from a year ago to 1.127 billion dollars, with cable television leading the improvement (AFP)

Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media company, on Friday said its quarterly net profit rose by 76 percent, boosted by digital video, high-speed Internet and higher advertising sales at its cable networks.

But its 2005 profit targets of high-single digit percentage growth fell short of the most optimistic estimates,

"We would have liked to see double digits," Peter Mirsky, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. said.

The New York-based company, which plans to restate 2000 to 2003 financial results to reflect accounting changes related to a Bertelsmann transaction, said fourth-quarter net profit rose to $1.13 billion, or 24 cents a share, from $639 million, or 14 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding a series of one-time benefits, the company posted a profit of 20 cents a share, ahead of analyst estimates of 16 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue rose about 2 percent to $11.1 billion from $10.9 billion. Wall Street had expected the company would post revenue of $11.16 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Parsons, in a conference call with analysts, said the company has completely rebounded from a chaotic past that included government probes of its accounting, a $30 billion debt pile and strategic missteps.

"We are now operating a fully settled down Time Warner," he said.

Wall Street had hoped for a more robust 2005 outlook from Time Warner, now in the midst of a joint bid with Comcast Corp. to buy Adelphia Communications Corp..

Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen said in a note that she believed Time Warner "tends to be conservative in guidance so we are comfortable Time Warner will at least meet our projections." She forecasts 8 percent 2005 profit growth.

Shares of Time Warner have languished since year-ago levels. "It's a patience story," said Richard Steinberg, of Steinberg Global Assets, which owns 42,000 shares of Time Warner. "Unfortunately lately, it's like watching paint dry."

(Agencies)

net profit: the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses)（凈利，純利）