Walt Disney’s (NYSE:DIS) stock has underperformed over the past year. The stock price has struggled to recover from the pandemic’s damage, despite having restored all of its amusement parks and other activities.
As a result, when Disney publishes its fiscal first-quarter 2022 financial results on February 9, the market will be more focused on the company’s streaming services and subscriber gains. As a result, total quarterly visits are a good predictor of user engagement and future subscription growth for Walt Disney.
To learn more about Walt Disney’s performance, we resorted to TipRanks‘ new tool, which can display a site’s total predicted visitors even before earnings are announced.
Monthly User Visit Statistics
The total expected visit volumes for Disney’s streaming services, namely Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, do not appear to be very promising for the first quarter. The total number of website visitors to all three of Disney’s streaming platforms, combined, fell by 7.3% to 1.1 billion worldwide. This might have impacted subscriber growth in the fiscal first quarter, to some extent.
In addition, on a year-over-year basis, website visits to all three streaming services are down 9.1% in Q1 2022 compared to Q1 2021.
If we look at the three streaming domains independently, the total estimated website visits to disneyplus.com and hulu.com declined 7.1% and 7.8% sequentially, respectively. The decline in website visits reflects a drop in Disney+ and Hulu membership additions.
The weak subscriber growth might be attributed to a number of causes, like increased competition in the streaming industry or a lack of new content. Nevertheless, Disney+ continues to expand into new territories and is well-positioned to attract new viewers and boost revenues with its evergreen content.
On the plus side, total estimated visits to ESPN+ climbed by 22% sequentially in Q1 to 2.1 million. This statistic boosts ESPN+ subscription additions, resulting in higher ESPN+ subscriber revenues in Q1.
Experts’ Take
Ahead of Walt Disney’s Q1 earnings release, BofA Securities analyst Jessica Ehrlich reiterated a Buy rating on Walt Disney and a price target of $191 per share.
Ehrlich anticipates Walt Disney’s Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products business to rebound in the first quarter. She also expects the company’s margins to improve to some extent.
However, Walt Disney does not impress all experts. On TipRanks, Walt Disney has a Moderate Buy average rating, based on 14 Buys and 7 Holds. The DIS stock price prediction indicates an average price target of $194.05, suggesting a possible 12-month upside of 36.6%.
Conclusion
Based solely on the above-mentioned website visits statistics, it appears that a reduction in Disney+ and Hulu subscriber additions will be largely offset by strong subscriber additions at ESPN+, resulting in decent overall subscription revenues for Walt Disney in Q1.
To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.
Read full Disclaimer & Disclosure.
from WordPress https://ift.tt/fvpLTYe
via IFTTT
0 Comments