Disney Shares Dump’n’Pump Amid Disappointing Streaming Subs, Earnings Beat

A mixed bag in the headline data with a revenue miss and earnings beat but it was the disappointing Disney+ subscribers that sparked some anxiety among investors (especially amid lockdowns and everyone looking for entertainment).

Good – *DISNEY 3Q ADJ EPS 8C, EST. LOSS/SHR 63C

Bad – *DISNEY 3Q REV. $11.78B, EST. $12.39B

Ugly – *DISNEY 3Q DISNEY+ SUBSCRIBERS 57.5M, EST. 59.4M

“Despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, we’ve continued to build on the incredible success of Disney+ as we grow our global direct-to-consumer businesses,” said Bob Chapek, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company. “The global reach of our full portfolio of direct-to-consumer services now exceeds an astounding 100 million paid subscriptions — a significant milestone and a reaffirmation of our DTC strategy, which we view as key to the future growth of our company.”

But we do note that ESPN and Hulu subs beat expectations:

• 3Q ESPN+ Subscribers 8.5M, Est. 8.26M

• 3Q Total Hulu Subscribers 35.5M, Est. 33.8M

Even more troubling -and not entirely unexpected – was the Parks, Experiences, and Consumer products group with suffered an operating loss of $1.96 billion in Q3 and Disney sees a further $2.9 billion COVID impact in Q4 across all its businesses.

• 3Q parks, experiences & consumer products revenue $983 million, -85% y/y, estimate $1.03 billion

• 3Q media networks revenue $6.56 billion, -2.2% y/y, estimate $6.38 billion

• 3Q studio entertainment revenue $1.74 billion, -55% y/y, estimate $1.70 billion

• 3Q Cable Networks revenue $4.03 billion, -9.6% y/y, estimate $4.16 billion

• 3Q broadcasting revenue $2.53 billion, +12% y/y, estimate $2.16 billion

• 3Q direct-to-consumer & international rev $3.97 billion, +2.9% y/y, estimate $4.56 billion

The sub growth sent stocks initially lower but has since been panic bid  from -4% to +3%…

Who knows what happens next?