DISH Network may be in the midst of a bitter battle with Univision over a new retransmission fee agreement, but that hasn’t stopped investors from swooping in and snapping up shares in the DBS provider.
Dish stock was up 14.5% at the Closing Bell on Friday after it reported fewer subscriber losses than FactSet had forecast.
On volume of 8.94 million shares, DISH was up to $34.20.
That’s a great rebound for DISH, which has struggled to get above the important $36 mark since April 26, when a steady decline in shares brought the DBS provider’s shares to $29.08 by June 1.
On Thursday, shares again dipped below the $30 mark.
Today’s rise is in reaction to the release of Q2 results that beat Street forecasts and were mostly stellar. Total revenue fell to $3.46 billion from $3.64 billion. But, operating income grew to $572.7 million from $252.1 million.
When all was said and done, Dish enjoyed net income of $438.7 million (83 cents per diluted share), compared to $40.1 million (9 cents).
Analysts on average had expected earnings of 71 cents per share and revenue of $3.44 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Meanwhile, Dish’s churn rate fell to 1.46% from 1.83% last year.
There was one blemish for Dish, however: Its Sling TV added 41,000 subscribers during the quarter, missing analyst estimates of 68,000.
Dish said goodbye to a net 192,000 satellite customers during Q2. But, this was below FactSet analyst expectations for losses of 235,000 customers — and that led to today’s big stock rebound.
With the nation’s leading Hispanic media company watching closely, it offered a statement following the release of Dish’s Q2 results.
“We at Univision do not take any pleasure in Dish TV’s loss of nearly 200,000 subscribers in the second quarter,” the company said. “In fact, we are concerned Dish’s decision to turn its back on Hispanic audiences—a growing community that already accounts for nearly 20% of Dish’s subscriber base—will exacerbate such losses going forward (as Dish itself alerted its shareholders in its SEC filing).”
Univision concluded that it remains confident that a renewed partnership “that leverages our top-rated news, sports and entertainment programming” will come soon, as this will “not only mitigate ongoing subscriber losses but propel Dish to greater long-term growth.”
