Walt Disney Q2 Profit Beats Street View, But Revenues Miss

(RTTNews) - Entertainment and media conglomerate Walt Disney Co. (DIS), Thursday reported a mixed results for its second quarter, as its earnings trumped Wall Street estimates but revenues fell shy of expectations.

Burbank, California-based Disney reported a second-quarter profit of $901 million or $0.50 per share, compared with last year's profit of $460 million or $0.25 per share.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.79 per share, up from $0.60 per share last year. On average, 25 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated an earnings of $0.27 per share.

Revenues for the quarter slipped 13% to $15.61 billion from last year's $18.03 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $15.87 billion.

The company said its Disney Parks, Experiences and Products segment where impacted by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic as since last year parks and resorts have been closed or operating at significantly reduced capacity and its cruise ship sailings have been suspended.

Disney Parks, Experiences and Products revenues plunged 44% to 3.18 billion from $5.66 billion last year. Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution segment revenues gained 1% to $12.44 billion from $12.37 billion last year.

Disney revealed that its Disney+ streaming service now has 103.6 million subscribers. In March, at the company's annual shareholder meeting, CEO Bob Chapek had announced that subscription service had reached 100 million milestone.

Direct-to-Consumer revenues, which includes Hulu, ESPN+ and Disney+ services, increased 59% to $4.00 billion. Hulu recorded 30% subscriber growth to 41.6 million subscribers and ESPN+ subscriber growth increased 75% to 13.8 million.

DIS closed Thursday's trading at $178.34, up $0.49 or 0.28%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, slipped $6.21 or 3.48%, in the after-hours trade.