STAMFORD, Conn. – Shares of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. rose Thursday after the professional wrestling company posted strong fourth-quarter results.
WWE said its media division revenue climbed 26 percent as TV rights payments increased.
WWE Network subscribers now have surpassed 1 million after its launch in early 2014, and the company credited subscriber growth to a free monthly promotion in November and a strong "Royal Rumble" event in January 2014 after the quarter ended. Members pay $9.99 per month for access to live events and on-demand programming.
The producer of professional wrestling events and television shows said it lost $1.6 million, or 2 cents per share. If one-time asset impairment costs are excluded the company took a loss of 1 cent per share. The Stamford, Connecticut-based company posted $140.5 million in revenue, up from $118.4 million a year earlier.
Analysts expected a loss of 8 cents per share and $134.4 million in revenue, according to FactSet.
For the full year, the company reported a loss of $30.1 million, or 40 cents per share, on revenue of $542.6 million.
In midday trading, WWE stock gained 58 cents, or 4.3 percent, to $13.95. WWE shares have risen 13 percent since the beginning of the year but are off 39 percent in the last 12 months.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on WWE at http://www.zacks.com/ap/WWE
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Keywords: World Wrestling Entertainment, Earnings Report
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