excluding

A person close to Comcast said the company had $38 billion in earnings, excluding certain items last year, and is financially strong.

That includes stocks, bonds, art and collectibles, vehicles and other assets, excluding directly owned real estate.

For instance, they analyzed their findings after excluding volunteers who were frail or reported fair or poor health, yet results were still “consistent with those of our main analyses.”

Nevertheless, its earnings also were somewhat below expectations excluding these impacts, the analysts say.

Earnings, excluding certain items, for the fourth quarter totaled 73 cents per share, up from 25 cents a year earlier.