NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Time Warner Cable are down by 5.03% to $150.25 in late afternoon trading on Friday, as staff attorneys at the Justice Department's antitrust division are close to recommending a block to Comcast's $45.2 billion request to but Time Warner Cable, sources told Bloomberg. Shares of Comcast are falling by 2.56% to $58.14 this afternoon. Attorneys investigating the proposed merger are said to be leaning against the deal due to concerns that it will hurt cable consumers. The lawyers could submit their review as early as next week to a deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust who, along with other top officials from the division, will decide whether or not to file a federal lawsuit in order to block the deal, Bloomberg's sources said. Time Warner Cable and Comcast are both confident that the DOJ will decide not to block the merger saying there is "no basis" for the DOJ to halt the deal. "We have been working productively with both DOJ and FCC and believe that there is no basis for DOJ to block the deal," a Time Warner Cable spokesperson told Bloomberg. A Comcast spokesperson made a similar comment to Bloomberg saying "there is no basis for a lawsuit to block the transaction," adding that the merger "will result in significant consumer benefits - faster broadband speeds, access to a superior video experience, and more competition in business services resulting in billions of dollars of cost savings." Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates TIME WARNER CABLE INC as a Buy with a ratings score of B+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate TIME WARNER CABLE INC (TWC) a BUY. This is driven by a number of strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, growth in earnings per share, solid stock price performance, good cash flow from operations and expanding profit margins. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 7.2%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 3.8%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share. TIME WARNER CABLE INC's earnings per share improvement from the most recent quarter was slightly positive. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, TIME WARNER CABLE INC increased its bottom line by earning $7.17 versus $6.71 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($8.12 versus $7.17). The stock has risen over the past year as investors have generally rewarded the company for its earnings growth and other positive factors like the ones we have cited in this report. The stock's price rise over the last year has driven it to a level which is somewhat expensive compared to the rest of its industry. We feel, however, that other strengths this company displays justify these higher price levels. Net operating cash flow has increased to $1,810.00 million or 13.19% when compared to the same quarter last year. Despite an increase in cash flow, TIME WARNER CABLE INC's cash flow growth rate is still lower than the industry average growth rate of 47.56%. 36.96% is the gross profit margin for TIME WARNER CABLE INC which we consider to be strong. Despite the high profit margin, it has decreased significantly from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 9.56% trails the industry average. You can view the full analysis from the report here: TWC Ratings Report Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 25 Stocks for 2015
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