Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) shares were down 8% after the company missed on most metrics in its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report. It also marked the first quarter that the company missed on subscriber growth for Disney+, potentially indicating that this growth catalyst may now be fully priced in.
The company also saw some negative impacts in terms of content costs and Parks costs increasing faster than expected. Capital spending in the quarter was 30% higher than last year and should remain high into 2023 according to the company. This offset some of the gains made by improvements in attendance in the quarter.
Inside the Numbers
In its fiscal Q4, Disney reported $0.37 per share in earnings, falling short of expectations of $0.51 per share. Revenue came in at $18.53 billion, missing expectations of $18.79 billion.
It also added 2.1 million Disney+ subscribers for a total of 118.1 million. Earlier, Disney CEO Bob Chapek had said Disney+ was hitting some growth headwinds and was expecting some slowdown in user growth in Q4 and Q1 of next year. This figure missed Wall Street's expectations of 9.4 million new subscribers.
The company is still targeting 260 million Disney+ subscribers by 2024. The company is also investing more to ensure new content with a major cycle expected to begin in Q4 of 2022 featuring releases from Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar. Thus, it sees growth flattening in the first part of next year before ticking higher in the latter half.
Disney+ monthly revenue per subscriber dropped 9% to $4.12 due to a larger mix of international customers with lower price points for Indian and Indonesian customers.
In total, Disney has 179 million subscriptions across Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu. DTC revenue increased 38% to $4.46 billion. Some of the major releases this quarter were 'Black Widow', 'Free Guy' and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' which drove strong box-office results.
One struggle is that the slower rate of creating content due to the pandemic has led to fewer theatrical releases and less available content than anticipated.
Disney's parks showed a rebound in attendance in Q4 that is also evident in its current quarter. Parks, Experiences and Products segment produced positive operating income for the first time last quarter and this quarter saw further improvement. Another boost is the US government lifting all restrictions in international travel.
All of Disney's global theme parks were open during the current quarter in addition to its cruise ships. In total, the segment saw 26% revenue growth to $5.5 billion.
To date, Disney has spent $1 billion in order to meet government regulations and increase hygiene and safety measures for workers and guests.