Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF-A -0.89%) stock fell as as much 8% in late trading this evening after the company reported lower-than-expected revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter and the full year.
Quarterly revenue fell from $785.7 million in the year-ago quarter to $721.9 million. Analysts had been looking for $823.6 million in fiscal Q4. For the full year, Lions Gate generated $2.63 billion in revenue versus $2.71 billion last year and Wall Street's target of $2.73 billion.
A thinner film slate is partially to blame. Lions Gate released 13 motion pictures in fiscal 2014 versus 19 the year prior. Even so, the company said its backlog for filmed entertainment -- a measure of movie revenue contracted but not yet recorded -- rose to $1.2 billion as of March 31 versus $1.1 billion at the same point in 2013.
Full-year profits improved from $0.96 a share to $1.47 a share, after excluding costs relating to stock-based compensation, retiring debt, administrative proceedings, and tax valuation allowances. Fiscal Q4 adjusted earnings fell to $0.42 a share from $0.61 in the prior-year quarter.
Lions Gate's television and international operations set records in fiscal 2014, contributing $447.4 million and $397.1 million in revenues, respectively. Revenue from the company's filmed entertainment library also reached an all-time best of $496 million.
"The trajectory of our business, the depth of our content pipelines and the ongoing generation of predictable income from our film franchises, television properties and filmed entertainment library continue to give us excellent long-term visibility," CEO John Feltheimer said in a statement.
