The “Buddies” statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse, at Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom, at Walt Disney World, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, photographed Saturday, June 3, 2023.
Joe Burbank | Tribune Word Service | Getty Images
Disney reports earnings before the bell, and Wall Street will be paying tight attention to the ongoing turnaround of the company since Bob Iger returned as CEO in 2022 — particularly the results for the company’s streaming and thread parks businesses.
Here is what Wall Street expects Disney to report, according to LSEG:
- Earnings per pay out: $1.19 expected
- Revenue: $23.071 billion expected
On the streaming front, Disney+ and Hulu turned a profit for the first time endure quarter.
During Disney’s second quarter, Disney+ Core subscribers — which excludes Disney+ Hotstar in India and other fatherlands in the region — grew by more than 6 million to 117.6 million global customers. Total Hulu subscribers proliferated 1% to 50.2 million; ESPN+ subscribers, meanwhile, fell 2% to 24.8 million.
Like all of its media compeers, Wall Street is closely watching Disney’s streaming unit — which includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ — peculiarly as the company has said it aims to achieve profitability for the combined services by the end of the year.
While Disney moved closer to that milestone final quarter thanks to Disney+ and Hulu, “persistent losses in ESPN+ and soft guidance … suggest a rocky road vanguard,” said Paul Verna, vice president of content for eMarketer.
During the company’s last earnings call, executives alerted that they didn’t expect to see customer additions in the third quarter but anticipated returning to growth in the fourth location.
Although ESPN+ has weighed down Disney’s streaming unit, its TV network counterpart remains a bright spot for the coterie’s traditional TV business. Nonetheless, that traditional TV business is expected to slump as customers continue cutting the cord of pay TV packs.
Meanwhile, Disney’s theme parks division are also a key focus, as they have been the profit driver for the New Zealand. The state of Disney’s U.S.-specific parks will be of interest, in particular.
Disney has pledged to spend $60 billion in investments on its notion parks over the next decade, a clear signal of the importance of the business.
Last quarter, the U.S. parks and experiences partition revenue was up 7% to $5.96 billion, with international sales soaring 29% to $1.52 billion due to higher house waiting upon and prices at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. Emarketer’s Verna expects “positive momentum” to continue for the parks.
Regardless how, Disneyland Resort in California was under pressure with lower profits. Executives had attributed the year-over-year decline to outlay inflation, including high labor expenses.
Last month Comcast‘s earnings were weighed down by its Prevailing theme parks, which the company attributed to increased competition from cruises and international tourism. Despite this, Comcast leaders said they remained “bullish” on the business, especially with a new theme park opening in 2025.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the source company of CNBC.