Liberty Media Corporation ( LMCA ) is slated to release its third-quarter 2014 results before the opening bell on Nov 4.

Last quarter, Liberty Media delivered a huge negative earnings surprise of 80.28%. Moreover, the company's earnings have missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters, with an average miss of 11.05%. Let's see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Factors to be Considered this Quarter

Liberty Media is steadily restructuring its business model, with an aim to control several subscription-based businesses. The company has also started providing cable TV services through its partial acquisition of Charter Communications Inc. ( CHTR ) and is determined to strengthen its foothold in the pay-TV market. Moreover, the combination of Live Nation and Sirius XM should considerably drive revenues and subscriber tally for the company.

On the flip side, Liberty Media's businesses are prone to rapid technological changes. Large cable TV operators are deploying digital TV networks, which are rapidly garnering huge market traction. This may adversely impact the channel positioning of Liberty Media's networks.

Notably, growing deployment of personal video recorders, video-on-demand technology and IPTV network are steadily changing distribution and viewing habits among the general public. Also, stiff competition from pay-TV operators coupled with macroeconomic fluctuations in the U.S. may hurt housing sector growth.

Earnings Whispers?

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Liberty Media is likely to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1, 2 or 3 for this to happen. Unfortunately, that is not the case here as elaborated below.

Zacks ESP : Liberty Media's earnings ESP is 0.00%. This is because both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate are poised at 26 cents.

Zacks Rank : Liberty Media carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) which increases the predictive power of ESP. However, a 0.00% ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.

Originally posted here:

Will Liberty Media's (LMCA) Earnings Surprise this Season? - Analyst Blog