Walt Disney Co.’s (NYSE:DIS) stock price is slumping after the company reported that it attracted fewer streaming customers than expected last quarter.
The entertainment giant reported 103.6 million "Disney+" customers at the end of this year’s first quarter, lower than the 110.3 million expected by analysts. Disney’s share price fell as much as 5.3% in pre-market trading on the news.
The results marked a rare disappointment for Disney+, which has enjoyed explosive growth over the past year and a half. After its launch in November 2019, the streaming platform quickly became a formidable rival to Netflix and provided a contrast to pandemic-fueled declines in other Disney businesses, notably its theme parks.
Quarterly profit came in ahead of Wall Street projections. Excluding some items, Disney’s earnings rose to 79 cents U.S. a share, compared with a 32-cent U.S. average estimate among analysts. But sales fell to $15.6 billion U.S., missing estimates of $15.9 billion U.S. for the period ended April 3.
Disney shares fell as low as $168.93 U.S. after the results were posted. The shares are down 1.6% year-to-date. Disney has projected 230 million to 260 million streaming subscribers by 2024. By comparison, Netflix currently has about 208 million customers.
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