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Shares of digital TV provider DirecTV Group Inc. (NASDAQ: DTV) have been rallying in early trading as its earnings numbers for the first quarter were superior than analysts had forecast. The company also announced its board approved an increase in its stock buyback program, raising it to $3 billion.

The company stated its first-quarter profit rose 10% to $371 million, helped by higher subscriber additions. DirecTV was able to slightly come in above analyst estimates, with 32 cents per share compared to the forecast 31 cents per share. Compared to its first period last year, earnings were up, as the digital television provider came with earnings of 27 cents a share last year.

The nation’s largest satellite-TV company posted a respectable growth of 17% for its first-quarter revenue, which jumped to $4.59 billion compared with $3.91 billion a year ago. This was above analysts’ predictions for quarterly revenue of $4.47 billion, according to Thomson Financial.

During the period, DirecTV added 275,000 net subscribers in the United States, and also benefited from a 14% increase in U.S. sales due to strong high-definition and video recording services demand. DirecTV also said it would privately offer up to $1.35 billion in senior notes and borrow about $1 billion under its existing senior secured credit facility to fund the buyback.

Wall Street expressed enthusiasm over DirecTV ’s positive earnings figures, and pushed shares of the company up 3.64% in pre-market trading.

Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the online investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

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