Comcast Stock Rises After Earnings. The Focus Is All on One Number.

Comcast execs at the grand opening of the Universal Epic Universe theme park in Orlando. (Gerardo Mora/Getty Images for Universal Orlando Resort)

Comcast stock rose Thursday after the cable and entertainment company’s earnings topped Wall Street’s targets and said it had lost fewer broadband subscribers than expected over the second quarter.

Shares in the NBCUniversal parent climbed 3.2% to $33.53 in early trading Thursday. The benchmark S&P 500 was up 0.7%.

Comcast reported adjusted earnings of $1.25 a share, as revenue climbed 2.1% from a year ago to $30.3 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $1.16 a share on revenue of $29.8 billion, according to a FactSet poll.

The company lost 226,000 broadband subscribers over the second quarter. Wall Street thought 256,000 customers would exit their contracts, per FactSet.

Created with Highcharts 9.0.1Comcast stockSource: FactSetAs of July 31, 4 p.m. ET

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Broadband subscriber losses had overshadowed everything else for shareholders in recent earnings seasons, given that it’s a key earnings driver for the company’s connectivity and platforms division.

Comcast stock has fallen 13% this year. Entertainment stocks Netflix and Walt Disney are up 31% and 7.7%, respectively, but rival cable provider Charter Communications is down 18% after a rough earnings report last week.

Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com