Disney (DIS) to Report Q1 Earnings: What's in the Cards?

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The Walt Disney Company DIS is set to report its first-quarter fiscal 2024 results on Feb 7.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings has moved down by 4% to 97 cents per share over the past 30 days, indicating a decline of 2.02% year over year.

The consensus mark for revenues is pegged at $23.47 billion, suggesting a decline of 0.16% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.

Disney’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 18.6%.

Let’s see how things have shaped up for this announcement.

The Walt Disney Company Price and EPS Surprise

The Walt Disney Company Price and EPS Surprise
The Walt Disney Company Price and EPS Surprise

The Walt Disney Company price-eps-surprise | The Walt Disney Company Quote

Factors to Consider

Disney’s first-quarter fiscal 2024 results are expected to reflect dull Disney+ subscriber growth. Disney+, as of Sep 30, 2023, had 150 million paid subscribers compared with 146.7 million as of Jul 1, 2023.

Stiff competition from the likes of Amazon Prime Video and Netflix NFLX, as well as the growing prominence of services from Apple AAPL, Comcast CMCSA-owned Peacock and HBO Max, is expected to have hurt Disney+’s growth rate in the to-be-reported quarter.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Disney+ paid subscribers is pegged at 148 million, indicating a decline of 8.6% year over year and 1.3% sequentially.

At the end of the fourth quarter, Netflix had 260.28 million paid subscribers globally, up 12.8% year over year. Peacock’s paid subscribers jumped nearly 50% year over year to 31 million, including net additions of three million in the fourth quarter.

According to data from Kantar, Apple TV+ seized the top spot from Disney+ in new SVOD subscriptions during the fourth quarter of 2023, commanding an impressive 18% share, followed by Amazon Prime Video (16%) and Disney+ (14%).

Moreover, Disney is expected to have suffered from lower advertising revenues in the to-be-reported quarter. In fiscal 2023, revenues declined 15% from the year-ago period due to fewer impressions, primarily attributed to declines at Hulu and Disney+.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Media and Entertainment Distribution revenues is pegged at $10.26 billion, indicating a decline of 30.6% year over year.

Disney is benefiting from a solid revival in the domestic and international theme park businesses. Latest attractions like the Frozen theme land at Hong Kong Disneyland and Walt Disney Park in Paris, as well as the Zootopia theme land at Shanghai Disney, are expected to have boosted the prospects of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company’s theme park business in the to-be-reported quarter. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Parks, Experiences & Consumer Products revenues is pegged at $8.93 billion, indicating 2.3% growth year over year.

Stay on top of upcoming earnings announcements with the Zacks Earnings Calendar.

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