Walt Disney Q3 Results Beat Street On Subscriber Growth; Shares Up 5%

(RTTNews) - Shares of Walt Disney Co. (DIS) gained over 5% in extended trading on Wednesday after the entertainment and media conglomerate reported its third-quarter results, with earnings beating Wall Street estimates, as streaming subscribers increased and revenues from theme park surged.

Burbank, California-based Disney reported third-quarter profit of $1.41 billion or $0.77 per share, compared with last year's profit of $918 million or $0.50 per share.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter were $1.09 per share, up from $0.80 per share last year. On average, 13 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated an earnings of $1.00 per share.

Revenues for the quarter jumped 26% to $21.50 billion from last year's $17.02 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $20.62 billion.

"We had an excellent quarter, with our world-class creative and business teams powering outstanding performance at our domestic theme parks, big increases in live-sports viewership, and significant subscriber growth at our streaming services. With 14.4 million Disney+ subscribers added in the fiscal third quarter, we now have 221 million total subscriptions across our streaming offerings," said Bob Chapek, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company.

Disney Parks, Experiences and Products revenues surged 70% to $7.39 billion from $4.34 billion last year. Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution segment revenues gained 11% to $14.11 billion from $12.68 billion last year.

Direct-to-Consumer revenues, which includes Hulu, ESPN+ and Disney+ services, increased 19% to $5.06 billion. Disney+ subscribers surged 31% to 152.1 million from 116.0 million last year. Meanwhile, Hulu recorded 8% subscriber growth to 46.2 million subscribers and ESPN+ subscriber growth surged 53% to 22.8 million.

Meanwhile, the average monthly revenue per paid subscriber for domestic Disney+ decreased from $6.62 to $6.27 due to a higher mix of subscribers to multi-product offerings, partially offset by an increase in retail pricing, the company said.

DIS closed Wednesday's trading at $112.51, up $4.38 or 4.05%, on the NYSE. The stock further gained $6.14 or 5.46% in the after-hours trading.