Shares of Disney (NYSE: DIS) finished the day flat but after hours investors poured into the stock as top executives promised improving growth over the next few years. This news sent shares soaring after hours, back to levels not seen since early August. For the year shares are down over 8% and most of the blame has to be placed on the ESPN brand and its struggles.
In the earnings report ESPN was once again a disappointment with declining advertising sales and more loss of subscribers. Disney continues to see its ESPN brand lose share to the growing population of "cord cutters" who do not purchase the standard cable services. According to Nielsen data, ESPN was estimated to lose 621,00 subscribers in November alone. In an effort to win back viewers Disney said it would offer an ESPN subscription streaming service by the end of the year but it wont include content that airs on the ESPN networks.
Overall the earnings will go on record as a miss. The company posted earnings per share of $1.10 for the quarter which was well below the street's estimates of $1.16. The miss actually caused a rather sharp decline in after hours trading initially. Adding to the miss, revenue at the Disney cable networks which include ESPN fell almost 7% to $3.96 billion. Analysts had largely agreed on $4.13 billion as the target estimate.
On the bright side, revenue from theme parks was up, and revenue from Disney's movie business was also up. That was about all the good news out of the earnings report and it appears that the Disney executives' comments helped save the stock...at least in the short term. As a whole, Disney's revenue fell to $13.14 billion from $13.51 billion when analysts had expected $13.52 billion. The executives were clear that they could promise growth in the coming years and from the looks of it they have much work to do.