WBD

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) confirmed to MT Newswires Tuesday that it increased the price of the Max streaming service ad-free plan by $1 to $16.99 per month and by $20 a year to $169.99, effective immediately for new customers. The ultimate ad-free plan’s price will also rise by $1 to $20.99 a month and by $10 to $209.99 per year, the company said. The rate for the ad-supported plan remains unchanged at $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, Warner Bros. added. Existing subscribers will see the new prices reflected in their next billing cycle starting around July 4 while those with annual subscriptions will not see any rate changes until the renewal of their plan, according to the company.

Keybanc analyst Brandon Nispel upgraded Warner Bros. Discovery Inc (NASDAQ:WBD) from Sector Weight to Overweight and a $11 price target. WBD reported fiscal first-quarter revenue of $9.96 billion, a 6.9% year-on-year decrease, according to Nispel. This was against a consensus of $10.25 billion. The total adjusted EBITDA of $2.10 billion, a 19.5% year-on-year decrease, fell short of the consensus of $2.18 billion. Nispel added that a $200 million content impairment for the Studios segment negatively impacted the results. However, free cash flow (FCF) of $390 million exceeded the consensus of $8.0 million, thanks to a strike that improved working capital and reduced capital spending. Nispel noted that the numbers have likely bottomed out. Regardless, a resolution to the NBA issue is expected to be positive. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) profitability, subscriber growth, and average revenue per user (ARPUs) are all expected to continue improving. According to Nispel, the stock is washed out and likely ready for

Warner Bros. Discovery is one of the most mentioned companies in the U.S. across all news items in the past 12 hours, according to Factiva data. Warner Bros. Discovery posted a wider-than-expected first-quarter loss and revenue that fell short of estimates. The company had a loss of $966 million, or 40 cents a share, narrower than the loss of $1.069 billion, or 44 cents a share, posted in the year-earlier period. Revenue fell to $9.958 billion from $10.700 billion. The FactSet consensus was for a loss of 20 cents and revenue of $10.223 billion. Dow Jones & Co. owns Factiva.

We think more work is needed to turn WBD around. We cut our target $0.50 to $8.50 on a forward TEV/EBITDA of 6.1x our ’24 EBITDA estimate of $9.9B, below peers. We lower our ’24 LPS to -$0.75 (-$0.50) and keep our ’25 EPS at $0.15; our respective revenue forecasts are $41.1B (prior $41.6B) and $42.2B ($42.5B). WBD posted a LPS of -$0.40, a wider loss than consensus. WBD will partner with Disney (DIS 105 ***) on a shared Direct to Consumer (DTC) platform for MAX, Disney+, and Hulu to drive revenue sharing, reduce customer churn, and remove middlemen like Roku (ROKU 59 ***) or Apple TV. DTC realized $86M adj. EBITDA and flat revenue Y/Y with advertising +70%, flat distribution, and content -46%. MAX’s domestic unit had 52.7M subs (+700K Q/Q) and ARPU of $11.72 vs. $11.65, while international had 46.9M subs (+1.3M) with ARPU of only $3.75 vs.

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) reported quarterly losses of $(0.40) per share which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $(0.27) by 48.15 percent. The company reported quarterly sales of $9.958 billion which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $10.231 billion by 2.67 percent. This is a 6.93 percent decrease over sales of $10.700 billion the same period last year.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) on Thursday posted a wider-than-expected first-quarter loss, amid revenue declines in the media and entertainment giant’s studios and networks segments. The company’s per-share net loss came in at $0.40 for the March quarter, compared with a $0.44 per-share loss the year before. The consensus on Capital IQ was for a loss of $0.21 per share. The result included a $1.88 billion pretax acquisition-related amortization charge and restructuring expenses. Revenue declined to $9.96 billion from $10.7 billion last year, missing the Street’s view for $10.22 billion. The stock fell 3.8% in recent premarket trading. Warner Bros., which operates the Max streaming service, saw direct-to-consumer revenue remain nearly flat at $2.46 billion. Global subscribers rose to 99.6 million from 98.5 million year-on-year and from 97.7 million in the previous three-month period. “We delivered meaningful growth in our streaming business with a nice acceleration in ad sales,” Chief Executive

CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows: We lower our target by $1 to $9, using a narrower risk premium and a forward TEV/EBITDA of 6.24x, below the direct peer average. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be negative in 1H and then turn positive in 2H 2024. Due to the actor and writer strikes, WBD faces lighter programming content in 2024. WBD is committed to doing a better job with blue-chip movie franchises like Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and Superman. Free cash flow was $3.3B for Q4 2023 and $6.2B for full-year 2023. We think accelerated growth and profits for MAX video streaming may take longer. We believe the consensus is optimistic with a $13.70 target that suggests a high growth scenario. A year ago, we thought EBITDA would show significant growth in

Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett upgrades Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) from Sell to Neutral and raises the price target from $7 to $10.

CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows: We are lowering our target price by $1 to $10, using a narrower risk premium and a forward TEV/EBITDA of 6.5x, below direct peer average. We think accelerated growth and profits for MAX video streaming may take longer. We believe the consensus is optimistic with a $13.70 target price that suggests a scenario for higher growth in EBITDA and profitability. A year ago, we thought EBITDA would show significant growth in ’24, but we see the consensus estimate at $9.9B compared to $10.2B actual EBITDA in ’23. Also, the ’25 consensus estimate of $10.4B equates to less than 5% EBITDA growth. In our view, the share price reflects less patience for WBD to achieve the transformation of its linear networks to MAX. Streaming subscriber gains were modest

Warner Bros. Discovery is talking with potential partners about new streaming bundles. JB Perrette, CEO of global streaming and games, says at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference that the company is “in conversation with others” about making a similar offering to its bundle with Verizon and Netflix. Warner Bros. Discovery executives have previously hinted at a big role for streaming bundles in the future, potentially with intermediaries such as Roku or directly with other services. “We think there’s more opportunity, particularly in that lower-priced SKU, to drive penetration, Perrette says.

Benchmark analyst Matthew Harrigan reiterates Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) with a Buy and maintains $20 price target.

By Jacob Adelman “Dune: Part Two” has hit movie venues as this year’s biggest Hollywood hit, a potential boon for theater businesses including AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.and IMAX Corp. Warner Bros. Discovery’s sequel to 2021’s “Dune: Part One” earned $32.2 million in ticket sales through the Friday night leading into its opening weekend, according to data from box-office tracker Comscore. Those opening-day results, which also include Thursday-night previews, smoked 2024’s previously most lucrative debut, “Bob Marley: One Love,” which earned about $14 million through its opening Friday night and just $28.7 million over its entire opening weekend, according to Comscore. Friday’s numbers put director Denis Villeneuve’s new sci-fi epic on track to earn at least $70 million through its first weekend in theaters, Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian said in an email to Barron’s. That’s more than the $65 million that Warner had projected the film would earn through