Disney shares jump 6.0% on best quarterly results since pandemic

The Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS) said on Thursday its profit and sales in the fiscal third quarter came in the strongest since the start of the pandemic. Shares of the company were about 6.0% up in after-hours trading.

Third-quarter financial performance

Disney reported $918 million of net income in the third quarter that translates to 50 cents per share. On an adjusted basis, it earned 80 cents per share versus the year-ago figure of only 8 cents per share.

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The mass media company generated $17.02 billion in revenue. In the comparable period of last year, its revenue stood at a much lower $11.78 billion. According to FactSet, experts had forecast Disney to post $16.8 billion of revenue and 55 cents of adjusted EPS.

Disney Plus now has 116 million subscribers

Disney Plus now has 116 million subscribers versus 115.2 million expected. Disney valued the revenue from its streaming segment at $4.26 billion that was roughly in line with the analysts’ forecast, as per the earnings press release.

Revenue from theme parks and product sales printed at $4.34 billion compares to $1.07 billion last year and $3.9 billion expected. Disney’s disclosed its televisions networks, including ESPN and ABC, as the largest unit by sales with $6.96 billion in sales – an increase from $6.01 billion in the same quarter last year. Analysts had expected $6.65 billion instead.  

Alex Sherman’s remarks on CNBC’s “Closing Bell”

Commenting on the earnings report, CNBC’s Alex Sherman said on “Closing Bell”:

“Disney has been successful in transitioning its business to streaming. Netflix has 210 million subscribers globally, and Disney has already hit 116 million in less than two years. So, Disney is really catching up quite quickly to Netflix. Disney wanted to put forward a narrative that it should trade at a multiple closer to that of Netflix, and they are doing well in pushing that narrative successfully to the investors. That’s why you see the stock up today.”

The management will discuss earnings and is likely to give future guidance on the earnings call scheduled for 04:30 p.m. ET. You can listen to the earnings call live at this link.