Investors had to deal with a lot of crosscurrents on Wednesday, with the results from the midterm elections trickling in along with corporate earnings reports. In early trading before the official market open, most major market benchmarks were fairly close to unchanged, with slight declines in some areas of the market.
One big company that disappointed investors overnight was Walt Disney (DIS 0.18%), which reported mixed results as it closed its 2022 fiscal year. However, there was a bright spot in the market, as Array Technologies (ARRY 2.43%) moved sharply higher amid strength in the solar industry. Read on to learn more about both of these stocks and why they made big moves on Wednesday.
Disney keeps spending on streaming
Shares of Disney were down more than 7% on Wednesday morning in premarket trading. Even though the company continued to see modest growth on the top line, it did little to reassure investors about the steepening costs of competing in the streaming video arena.
Disney's most recent quarterly results were mixed. Revenue was up 9% year over year, completing the year with 23% sales growth from fiscal 2021 levels. However, adjusted earnings for the quarter fell 19% to $0.30 per share.
A closer look at the results shows the impact of Disney's two very different businesses. On the parks, experiences, and products side, performance was exemplary, with sales jumping 36% year over year in the fiscal fourth quarter ending Oct. 1 and operating income more than doubling. However, in the media and entertainment distribution segment, which includes streaming video, sales were down 3%, and operating income for the segment plunged 91%. In particular, streaming contributed operating losses of $1.47 billion for the quarter, eating up most of the $1.74 billion in operating income from Disney's linear networks.
Streaming remained popular, with Disney adding 46 million new Disney+ subscribers to bring its total to 164.2 million viewers. Yet average monthly revenue per subscriber fell 5% to $3.91, with particularly steep declines among U.S. Disney+ viewers.
For long-term investors, it was somewhat reassuring that full-year adjusted earnings of $3.53 per share were up by more than half from year-ago levels. Yet coming out of the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney investors had wanted to see an even stronger recovery, and that just doesn't seem to be in the cards for the House of Mouse just yet.
Array shines
The big winner in the stock market Wednesday morning was Array Technologies, whose shares jumped 17% in premarket trading. The maker of technology that helps solar arrays track the movement of the sun across the sky for maximum energy-production efficiency reported quarterly results that showed the ongoing demand for cutting-edge solar power generation.
Array's numbers were impressive. Revenue for the third quarter jumped 173% year over year to $515 million, and although acquisitions made up a significant portion of that gain, organic sales still soared 112% from year-ago levels. More importantly, Array turned profitable for the period, with adjusted net income of $28 million reversing a year-ago loss and translating into adjusted earnings of $0.18 per share.
Array also boosted its guidance for the rest of the year. The solar tracker specialist now expects revenue for 2022 to come in between $1.5 billion and $1.6 billion. Adjusted earnings should be in a range of $0.32 to $0.37 per share.
With the gains, Array's stock joined a host of other solar technology providers that have benefited from high electricity costs and the added benefits of homeowners building in their own production capabilities. That trend is likely to continue, especially if utility prices remain high and more people switch to electric vehicles.
