Versant Media raised its full-year outlook despite recording lower sales in the second quarter.

The company, which owns CNBC and MS NOW, on Thursday said it now expects annual revenue to be $6.2 billion to $6.45 billion, while analysts are estimating $6.41 billion.

Versant said during a May analyst call it anticipated $6.15 billion to $6.4 billion in full-year sales.

Shares rose 6% to $38 in pre-market trading.

The company, which went public in January after spinning off from Comcast, posted a profit of $211 million, or $1.49 a share, compared with $302 million, or $2.09 a share, a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were forecasting $1.35 a share.

Revenue fell 3.8% to $1.64 billion, ahead of the $1.62 billion analysts projected.

Versant completed its divestiture of youth-sports management platform SportsEngine in the second quarter. Excluding that business, total sales were down 2.8%.

Linear distribution sales were down 6.3% to $954 million, while revenue from both advertising and content licensing fell less than 1%. Platforms revenue increased less than 1%, and was up 9% excluding SportsEngine.

Versant executives said in May they expected quarterly fluctuations driven by content licensing, working capital and higher programming costs in the second half of the year, which were reflected in the full-year guidance.

During the most recent quarter, Versant's platforms reached more than 120 million viewers each month, Chief Executive Mark Lazarus said. The company also signed multi-year renewal deals with two large distribution partners in the U.S. and Canada.

Versant completed a $100 million accelerated share buyback during the quarter, and expects to enter a second agreement of the same amount starting Friday. It plans to complete the deal in the current third quarter.