- Viacom CBS (VIAC.US) stock slumped over 21% during today's session after the media giant posted disappointing quarterly figures. Company which is changing its name to Paramount reported earnings of 26 cents per share, well below analysts’ estimates of 0.43 cents per share
- Revenue rose by 16% to $8 billion, beating market consensus of $7.51 billion, driven largely by licensing and streaming growth
- Paramount+ and Pluto posted strong growth, with 7.3 million net subscriber additions and a 10 million increase in monthly active users
- Total global streaming subscribers increased by 9.4 million in Q4 to over 56 million
- Streaming revenues were pegged at $1.33 billion while cable network revenues increased 16.3% to $4 billion. Ad revenues were little changed at $2.6 billion
- Company expects revenues of around $9 billion in 2024, up from a prior estimate of $6 billion
- ViacomCBS hopes to increase number of streaming subscribers to 100 million by 2024, up from an earlier forecast of around 70 million
- Company is planning to invest over $6 billion a year on content for its Paramount CBS, Showtime, MTV and Comedy Central offerings in order to compete with market leaders Netflix and Disney+
- Bank of America also downgraded the stock to neutral as the company's focus on streaming lowered the chances of a takeover offer in the near term.
Viacom CBS (VIAC.US) stock launched today’s session with a bearish price gap and broke below major support at $28.70 which is marked with 78.6% Fibonacci retracement of the upward wave which started in March 2021. If current sentiment prevails, downward move may be extended to the lower limit of the descending channel or even support at $21.50. Source: xStation5
