Disney Q4 Earnings Highlights: Revenue And EPS Miss, Disney+ Hits 164.2 Million Subscribers And More

Zinger Key Points
  • Disney reported fourth quarter revenue of $20.15 billion, up 9% year-over-year.
  • The company’s core Disney+ subscribers were up 38% in the fourth quarter.

Media giant The Walt Disney Company DIS reported fourth-quarter and full-year financial results after market close Tuesday. Here are the key highlights.

What Happened: Disney reported fourth-quarter revenue of $20.15 billion, up 9% year-over-year. The revenue total was shy of a Street target of $21.25 billion, according to Benzinga Pro

The company reported fourth-quarter earnings per share of 30 cents, missing a Street estimate of 56 cents per share.

Fourth-quarter revenue for the company’s Media and Entertainment segment was $12.7 billion, down 3% year-over-year. The direct-to-consumer sector of this segment had growth of 8% year-over-year, the only positive sub-segment.

The company’s Parks, Experiences and Products segment had revenue of $7.4 billion in the fourth quarter, up 36% year-over-year.

Operating income in the fourth quarter was down 91% for the Media segment and up over 100% for the Parks segment.

For the full fiscal year, Disney had revenue of $55 billion for its Media segment, up 8% year-over-year, and $28.7 billion for the Parks segment, up 73% year-over-year.

Operating income for the full year was $4.2 billion for the Media segment and $7.9 billion for the Parks segment.

“2022 was a strong year for Disney, with some of our best storytelling yet, record results at our Parks, Experiences and Products segment, and outstanding subscriber growth at our direct-to-consumer services, which added nearly 57 million subscriptions this year for at total of more than 235 million,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek said.

Related Link: How To Trade Disney Stock Ahead Of Q4 Earnings, Has Disney Kept Pace With Netflix Subscribers 

Streaming Growth: The company’s fourth quarter and full year were headlined by the results of the company’s streaming platforms, including Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.

The company ended the fourth quarter with the following subscriber counts for its streaming platforms:

Disney+ Domestic: 46.4 million, +20% year-over-year

Disney+ International ex. Hotstar: 56.5 million, +57%

Disney+ Hotstar: 61.3 million: +42%

Total Disney+: 164.2 million, +39%

ESPN+: 24.3 million, +42%

Hulu: 47.2 million, +8%

The company’s core Disney+ subscribers which count domestic and international without Hotstar were up 38% in the fourth quarter.

Disney noted the average revenue per Disney+ subscriber was down 10% domestically and 5% globally.

“Our fourth quarter saw strong subscription growth with the addition of 14.6 million total subscriptions, including 12.1 million Disney+ subscribers. The rapid growth of Disney+ in just three years since launch is a direct result of our strategic decision to invest heavily in creating incredible content and rolling out the service internationally,” Chapek said.

Disney is set to launch its ad-supported version of Disney+ on Dec. 8. The company will raise the price of its existing basic plan, which will force subscribers to keep the ad-supported plan at the same price or pay more for the ad-free plan. This could help raise the average revenue per subscriber.

“We believe we will be on the path to achieve a profitable streaming business that will drive continued growth and generate shareholder value long into the future,” Chapek noted.

DIS Price Action: Disney shares are down 6.20% to $93.77 in after-hours trading Tuesday.

Read Next: Disney Raises Streaming Prices Again, Following Netflix 

Photo: Created with image from Walt Disney Television on flickr

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Date
ticker
name
Actual EPS
EPS Surprise
Actual Rev
Rev Surprise
Posted In: EarningsNewsTop StoriesAfter-Hours CenterMoversTrading IdeasBob ChapekDisney PlusDisney+ESPNESPN+Hulumedia stocksstreaming platformsstreaming stockstheme park stocksWalt Disney World
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!

Loading...