- Strong Disney+ subscriber additions offset theme park, movie weaknesses.
- Walt Disney Co. posted its first quarterly loss since 2001, as the coronavirus pandemic slammed its theme parks and film productions.
- WSJ’s R.T. Watson explains why investors still seem optimistic.
According to a Wall Street Journal news article, written by Dan Gallagher, Disney’s share price a lift of more than 3% in after-hours trading Thursday following the results.
What is it to be Disney?
It is good to be Disney —even in the midst of a crushing global pandemic.
Disney doing good now but in one field
The company’s fiscal year ended Oct. 3 was a brutal one for a business based on theme parks, cruise ships, theatrical movies and live sport broadcasts.
But the results for that year, reported Thursday afternoon, also showed many of the offsets a global entertainment giant can bring to bear.
As such, even in a year when theme park revenue slid 37% and movie division revenue fell 13%, total company revenue came down only 6%, helped by growth in the cable-TV business and a booming reception for the company’s streaming services.
Disney+ with growing subscribers
The latter gets all of the spotlight at Disney these days.
And for good reason. Even after a strong start a year ago, Disney+ continues to grow subscribers at a rapid rate.
More than 16 million were added in the fiscal fourth quarter alone, nearly double the 8.7 million additions analysts had been expecting, according to consensus estimates from Visible Alpha.
After a year on the market, Disney+ now has 73.7 million paying subscribers, which is the midpoint of the subscriber range the company originally projected the service would reach in five years.
Disney’s share prices increases
That was enough to give Disney’s share price a lift of more than 3% in after-hours trading Thursday following the results.
It has also played a big part in the stock’s outperformance of other peers heavily exposed to industries tarnished by the pandemic.
Disney’s share price is down 6% for the year, while three major theme park operators— Six Flags , SeaWorld and Cedar Fair —have averaged a 34% drop.
Did you subscribe to our daily newsletter?
It’s Free! Click here to Subscribe!
Source:Wall Street Journal
