WWE’s Q3 2009 earnings statement featured a number of positives, toplined by the fact that the leading sports entertainment corporation beat Wall Street estimates on both revenues and earnings.
Revenue rose from $108.8 million to $111.3 million year-over-year, while net income rose from $5.3 million ($.07 per share) to $8.9 million ($.12 per share). Analysts forecast a revenue decline to $105.3 million and an income figure of $.10 per share.
In addition to beating the streets, WWE also forecast its annual earnings growth at 15-20% through 2012.
“We believe we can achieve meaningful growth by strengthening our global expansion and television distribution, leveraging our new partnership with Mattel and continuing to improve operating efficiency. Through disciplined cost management, we expect our operating leverage to deliver outstanding earnings growth with even moderate increases in revenue,” said Vince McMahon.
With live attendance up domestically and internationally (admittedly due in part to price reductions), Q3 2009’s live events revenue was $27.2 million, up from $20.3 million last year. There were an additional five events in the international market this year (and this extra international event revenue accounts for $5.8 million of the yearly difference).
Pay-per-view revenue, however, was down from $16.4 million to $14.5 million due to a 10% decrease in buys and a higher ratio of buys coming internationally (which provides WWE with less revenue). While “Night of Champions” (267,000) outperformed last year’s quarter counterpart “The Bash” (196,000), “Summerslam” (369,000 vs. 477,000) and “Breaking Point (Unforgiven)” (169,000 vs. 211,000) were down notably from last year.
