The day after Disney revealed its first quarter results for 2025, this included a rise in entertainment revenue from year to year, a slight decline in Disney+ as expected for subscribers, and ESPN revenues also rose. , even as five Wall Street analysts made public their relatively bullish post, the stock was slightly soaked. – Revenue notes.
In a February 5th filing, the Burbank-based entertainment giant lowered plans to spend on this year’s content. In November, the Bob Iger-led company was expected to spend $24 billion, but the latest disclosures suggest that the figure would be around $23 billion for produced and licensed content, including sports rights. I mentioned. In 2024, Disney’s content spending was $23.4 billion.
The company’s shares were trading about $110 per share as of Thursday.
“From a company’s cost-saving perspective, we’re probably focusing on identifying opportunities that are likely to be efficient in using our money and always identifying opportunities that are looking for opportunities that are more efficient.” Content Expenses Regarding revision.
As of December 2024, there were 124.6 million Disney+Core subscribers, while Hulu had 53.6 million, which was around 10 million per year, and Hulu had around 4 million per year. .
“We’re actually very pleased with the potential locations of Disney+ and Hulu,” Iger said in Cole, referring to a slight drop in Disney+’s quarterly subscribers. “You know, we’ve been up quite a bit recently and we expect the churn to be significantly bigger, providing better numbers than we expected.”
Wall Street analyst research notes include report titles such as “Smooth Sea Goes ahead”, “Checking the Right Box”, “Checking Winter Soldiers”, and “Starting the Year” for fiscal quarter It reflects the measurement take.
“We expect this year of investment, but we believe there is some discretion in the magnitude of spending, and the (Disney+) platform has benefited from password sharing crackdowns, recent price increases and strong advertising. You should be accepted,” written by an American team led by Jessica Reif Ehrlich. The bank’s team has a Disney “buy” rating and a price target of $140.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley’s Benjamin Swinburn has raised its price target from $125 to $130 despite saying the company needs to carry out consumer growth. “Disney raised DTC subscribers overall in the F1Q, and Disney and losses were lower than expected, but the guidance for a “conservative” decline in F2Q has sparked investors’ concerns.” The analyst wrote. “Along with targeted content investments, we reduced our strategies to improve customer growth through product and technology investments, including implementing paid sharing, improving and personalizing recommendation engines, and integration of ESPN flagship in August. Includes, but in the end, the market expects these initiatives to be converted into a higher net addition.”
Attention to revenue calls on the consumer front focused on the launch of the flagship ESPN streaming service, which arrives by the end of the year. The executive framed the sports streamer as an opportunity for a potential bundle of Disney+ and Hulu.
“We continue to believe Disney will eventually settle into a more unified DTC vision and mature the segment into a meaningful money maker, but this is still the show me. Fishman in the post-revenue report. The analyst company has Disney with a “buy” rating of $140 target price.
“The results gave us a strong start to the fiscal year,” wrote Guggenheim’s Michael Morris. His team of analysts wrote: “We reflect our confidence in the long-term strength and potential for profitable growth of the company’s media and entertainment assets, which corresponds to uncertainty and linear pace of consumer demand. The network will decrease.”
Content/Sales and License revenues rose compared to a year ago. Moana2 and Mufasa: The Lion King: The Lion King vs. The previous year will make up for wonder and wishes. But “under the seemingly strong quarter… there are some lingering questions left, something that can set a tone about how stocks will trade over the next few quarters,” he said, “outperform.” The Bernstein research team led by Laurent Yun, who has a rating of the book. The company’s $120 price target.
Yoon added after earnings on February 5th: Well, both. Balancing this equation is challenging and some may say it is impossible, but today’s warm market response clearly shows investors are looking for both. It looks like there is. ”
