Disney's Stock Falls on Streaming Growth Slowdown
November 11 2021 - 1:37PM
Dow Jones News
By Maria Armental
Walt Disney Co. trades 6% lower at $163.43 a day after
fourth-quarter results and ahead of its Disney+ Day, which marks
the two-year anniversary of its flagship streaming service.
The event starts Friday and will highlight new programming as
well as exclusive on-platform specials from Pixar Animation and
Marvel studios and other perks for subscribers, and comes as Disney
launches its flagship service in South Korea and Taiwan. The
service is expected to be available in Hong Kong as well starting
on Nov. 16.
The streaming service's international expansion is seen as key
for the company to hit projections of 230 million to 260 million
paid Disney+ subscribers by end of fiscal 2024.
On Wednesday, Disney reported a slowdown in Disney+ subscriber
sign-ups in the most recent quarter, largely due to a decline in
Disney+ Hotstar subscriptions.
Disney+ Hotstar subscriptions, the company said, accounted for
about 37% of the roughly 118.1 million Disney+ paid subscriptions
as of Oct. 2.
Company officials pointed to seasonality of the business and
said that Disney+ Hotstar is included in the overall Disney+
guidance, including the 230 million to 260 million paid Disney+
subscribers by the end of fiscal 2024 and an expectation that it be
profitable.
Company officials said that given the timing of content releases
as well as the planned international launches, Disney+
subscriptions are expected to ramp up in the second half of the
current business year.
Disney swung to a fourth-quarter profit of $159 million from a
loss of $710 million a year earlier, while revenue rose 26% to
$18.53 billion.
JPMorgan lowered its December 2022 price target to $220 from
$230, citing lower fiscal year 2023 estimates.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 11, 2021 13:22 ET (18:22 GMT)
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