Its stock has been trading on the bottom end of a five-year bell curve of late, and last week saw KeyBanc analysts downgrade the company’s shares from “overweight” to “sector weight” on concerns associated with slowing growth for its Disney+ and Hulu OTT platforms.
What’s to come for The Walt Disney Co., which has received much press of late for high-profile layoffs at its ESPN unit? All will be revealed when it discusses its fiscal Q3 2023 results on August 9.
Disney executives including CEO Bob Iger will host its earnings call on the second Wednesday of August, at 4:30pm Eastern, following the Closing Bell on Wall Street.
With “DIS,” which trades on the NYSE, trading in the $88 range on July 6, what can investors expect to hear from Disney? Twenty-three analysts polled by Yahoo! Finance predict a slight year-over-year decrease, with a consensus earnings estimate of $1.07 billion. This compares to $1.09 billion in fiscal Q3 2022.
Revenue is forecast at $22.61 billion, rising from $21.5 billion in fiscal Q3 ’22.
Even if Disney meets or beats those forecasts, cost cuts have dominated the headlines for the “Mouse House” of late. This indirectly includes the $5 million sale of KRDC-AM 1110 to Calvary Costa Mesa, owner of KWVE-FM in San Clemente, Calif. It was the last radio station to be owned by Disney, which several years ago decided to discontinue its Radio Disney broadcast operation.
Then, there’s the demise of ESPN Radio, with many of its former owned radio stations now the property of Craig Karmazin-helmed Good Karma Brands. On June 21, Streamline Publishing’s Radio Ink noted the end of ESPN Radio’s national morning radio show, “Keyshawn, JWill, and Max,” as part of the company’s restructuring plan.
That was hardly where ESPN’s layoffs stopped, as Jalen Rose, Jeff Van Gundy, Suzy Kolber, Max Kellerman, Chris Chelios, Matt Hasselbeck, Steve Young, Rob Ninkovich, Neil Everett, and LaPhonso Ellis are among those who are no longer with the sports network.
ESPN commented on the job cuts by stating in a release, “Given the current environment, ESPN has determined it necessary to identify some additional cost savings in the area of public-facing commentator salaries, and that process has begun. This exercise will include a small group of job cuts in the short-term and an ongoing focus on managing costs when we negotiate individual contract renewals in the months ahead. This is an extremely challenging process, involving individuals who have had tremendous impact on our company. These difficult decisions, based more on overall efficiency than merit, will help us meet our financial targets and ensure future growth.”
