By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Disney stock (NYSE:DIS) jumped 6.7% in premarket trading Thursday after its fourth-quarter results revealed strong subscriber growth in its streaming services and more people returning to its theme parks.
The company added 11.8 million Disney+ subscribers in the first quarter, easily eclipsing Netflix's (NASDAQ:NFLX) 8.3 million additions in its recent quarter. Those subscribers were drawn in by Marvel’s ‘Hawkeye’ and the new TV series ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ under the Star Wars franchise on the platform. They also paid more compared to last year.
As of January 1, Disney+ Hotstar had nearly 130 million subscribers. That compares to Netflix’s nearly 222 million.
The company is pouring billions into ramping up its content, spending heavily on programming, marketing and technology. This also means its Direct-to-Consumer business is still bleeding heavily. The unit's operating loss rose 27% to $593 million.
Meanwhile, operating income at ESPN and ABC, Disney’s legacy TV units, fell 13% to $1.5 billion as higher programming costs offset rise in advertising and fees from cable TV distributors.
That, however was largely offset by the explosive release of pent-up demand at its theme parks as concerns about Covid-19 ebbed.
Disney Parks, Experiences and Products revenue doubled to $7.2 billion in a quarter when most of its parks operated without Covid restrictions.
The products business suffered due to closure of a substantial number of Disney-branded retail stores in North America and Europe, the company said.
Total revenue rose 34% to nearly $22 billion. Adjusted profit per share was $1.06 and easily beat estimates.