DirecTV beat Wall Street expectations, as net income at the satellite company jumped 16 percent to $718 million over the fourth quarter of 2011, the company said on Thursday.
Revenue at the company also exceeded projections, rising 13 percent to $7.5 billion from $6.6 billion.
Earnings per share grew 38 percent to $1.02 compared with the same period last year.
Analysts were expecting earnings of 92 cents per share and $7.41 billion in revenue.
The company cited the addition of a record number of new Latin American subscribers as a reason for the strong report — DirecTV gained 590,000 customers in the region.
"Our fourth quarter results capped off another strong year of industry leading growth as we further extended our position as the world's largest provider of pay television services with nearly 32 million subscribers in the U.S. and Latin America," Mike White, the company’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
The company said it plans to buy back $6 billion in stock.
Despite the strong earnings report, shares of the company fell 1.6 percent to $45.56. That could be partly attributable to U.S. customer numbers, which fell short of projections. DirecTV reported a gain of 125,000 domestic customers, short of 162,000 that analysts had estimated
