Re-published from Forbes
On Tuesday shares of World Wrestling Entertainment shot up 19% when the company reported that its 11-month old WWE Network had hit 1 million subscribers. The news caught Wall Street by surprise in part because the WWE Network had gotten off to a disappointing start.
The upbeat news also apparently caught WWE officers and directors off guard. Insiders have decreased their holdings of the company’s class A shares (the McMahan family controls the WWE through the class B shares) by a net 69,000 ($1.1 million) over the past six months.
The increase in WWE subscribers is probably not a fluke. Viewership and social media following are solid for WWE. According to the Nielsen Twitter TWTR -4.55% television ratings, WWE had two of the top 10 television shows last week, with WWE Royal Rumble placing fifth and Monday Night Raw placing seventh (see table below).
Shares of WWE have fallen to $11.65 early today, giving about about a third of Tuesday’s gain. But WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahan must be in a far more jovial mood than the insiders who be against him and dumped their shares.
On Tuesday shares of World Wrestling Entertainment shot up 19% when the company reported that its 11-month old WWE Network had hit 1 million subscribers. The news caught Wall Street by surprise in part because the WWE Network had gotten off to a disappointing start.
The upbeat news also apparently caught WWE officers and directors off guard. Insiders have decreased their holdings of the company’s class A shares (the McMahan family controls the WWE through the class B shares) by a net 69,000 ($1.1 million) over the past six months.
The increase in WWE subscribers is probably not a fluke. Viewership and social media following are solid for WWE. According to the Nielsen Twitter TWTR -4.55% television ratings, WWE had two of the top 10 television shows last week, with WWE Royal Rumble placing fifth and Monday Night Raw placing seventh (see table below).
Shares of WWE have fallen to $11.65 early today, giving about about a third of Tuesday’s gain. But WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahan must be in a far more jovial mood than the insiders who be against him and dumped their shares.
No comments:
Post a Comment