Walt Disney Co. (DIS) has announced third-quarter financial results that beat Wall Street forecasts and announced plans to further reduce costs by $2 billion U.S.
Disney reported earnings per share of $0.82 U.S. versus $0.70 U.S. that had been expected among analysts.
Revenue in Q3 totaled $21.24 billion U.S. compared to $21.33 billion U.S. that had been forecast. Revenue was up 5% from a year ago.
Total Disney+ subscribers came in at 150.2 million compared to expectations for 148.15 million.
The company attributed the better-than-expected earnings to a growing profit at its ESPN+ streaming service and continued growth at its theme parks coming out of the pandemic.
Disney executives said on an earnings call that they plan to “aggressively manage” costs moving forward, increasing their cost-cutting measures by an additional $2 billion U.S. and bringing the total amount of cost reductions undertaken this year to $7.5 billion U.S.
The company continues to expect that its combined streaming businesses will reach profitability in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2024.
Disney’s stock was up 4% in premarket trading on news of the Q3 financial results. So far this year, the company’s share price has declined 5% to trade at $84.50 U.S.