DreamWorks Animation said Tuesday it earned 12 cents per share on $154.5 million revenue, besting the expectations of analysts on both the top and bottom lines even though the results were well below the same frame last year.
Analysts had predicted the company run by CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg would earn 2 cents per share on $143.9 million in the third quarter. In the year-ago quarter, DWA posted 26 cents per share on $213.4 million in revenue.
Due to worldwide pay television, Rise of the Guardians contributed a hefty $42.4 million to third-quarter revenue, partially offsetting a disappointing performance from Turbo, which has taken in just $246.2 million at the worldwide box office so far.
The company also said Tuesday it has created new reporting segments, so that financial results will be separated into four categories: feature films, television series and specials, consumer products and other.
In the third quarter, the feature films segment contributed $120.7 million in revenue and $55.4 million in gross profit. Library titles did the heavy lifting in the category, followed by Rise of the Guardians. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted combined with Puss In Boots contributed the next most revenue to the film segment, followed by Turbo and The Croods.
The TV series and specials segment contributed $18.2 million in revenue and $4.2 million in gross profit primarily from Classic Media content and from DreamWorks Dragons: Riders of the Berk on Cartoon Network.
Consumer Products was good for $12 million revenue and $3 million gross profit, mostly related to Turbo and Classic Media.
Other items, consisting primarily of digital asset AwesomenessTV, contributed $3.6 million in revenue.
On a conference call with analysts, Katzenberg noted that How to Train Your Dragon 2, set for June 13, has a particularly advantageous release date given that the summer of 2014 has no competition from Pixar, Sony Pictures Animation, Blue Sky Studios or Illumination Entertainment — “virtually clearing the way for the second chapter of our epic trilogy.”
Shares of DWA were up 1 percent on Tuesday and are up about 68 percent so far this year, despite a slew of recent downgrades from Wall Street analysts. The stock soared 9 percent after the closing bell on Tuesday.
In September, B. Riley downgraded the stock to “neutral” and Morgan Stanley downgraded it to “underweight.” This month, McLean Capital Management downgraded DWA to “sell.”
