Disney Q1 Earnings: What Can Nervous Investors Expect In 2022?

Disney (NYSE: DIS), the media and theme park behemoth, reports quarterly earnings next week and investors will be concentrating on the company's streaming subscriber growth.

The pandemic created headwinds for the company due to park closures and then limited park attendance, but also provided tailwinds for its streaming service, Disney+, as people remained indoors. 

In fact, the streamer has been an outrageous success for the company, reaching subscriber number projections years ahead of schedule, and it has only been launched in less than half of its intended countries. In the last quarter, Disney added a lackluster 2 million subscribers; that's over 83% less than the previous quarter. The company's stock price has tumbled over 20% since the last earnings report. Investors will be eager to see if the division has plateaued or is on its way to profitability on next week's earnings call.

When is Disney's earnings date?

Disney reports earnings for the first quarter of 2022 on Wednesday, February 9^th, at 4:30 pm Eastern Time.

How can I listen to Disney's earnings call?

To listen to the call and to access the transcript, as well as the shareholder's letter and the financial statements for the quarter, all you need to do is go to Disney's Investor Relations Page.

What to expect from Disney's earnings

Wall Street analysts expect Disney to post earnings of $0.61 per share on revenue of $18.56 billion, which would be an increase of 6,000% and 14.2%, respectively, year-over-year (YoY). The last quarter saw the weakest subscriber growth for Disney+ since it was launched due to pandemic-related production delays and international annual subscription churn. 

This year, the company is boosting its content budget to $33 billion, an $8 billion increase from 2021. Disney expects to reach roughly 250 million subscribers by 2024, which is when it also expects the division to become profitable; the current count is 118 million. Available in over 50 countries, the company plans to further expand its offering to 42 countries by this summer. 

Offering strictly family-oriented programming, the service is seen by many as a complement to their existing subscriptions to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Disney also owns Hulu and ESPN+ and the company's total subscription number is nearly 180 million. 

Also of note will be theme park performance as the last quarterly numbers were skewed by pandemic shutdowns. It would be interesting to see if the business is picking up as restrictions are eased.