{"id":117824,"date":"2023-02-02T17:36:35","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T22:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=117824"},"modified":"2023-02-02T17:36:35","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T22:36:35","slug":"wwe-4th-quarter-financials-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2023\/02\/02\/wwe-4th-quarter-financials-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE 4th Quarter Financials Reports Record Breaking Annual Revenue & Premium Live Event Viewership"},"content":{"rendered":"

WWE continues to shatter records in it’s business as the company reports record numbers such as the viewership on Peacock going increasing to 70% from the previous year, and increasing it’s revenue to 5% from last year bringing it to $325 million for the company. Here’s much more from the press release:<\/p>\n

STAMFORD, Conn., February 2, 2023\u00a0<\/strong>– WWE (NYSE: WWE) today announced financial results for its fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201c2022 was another strong year for WWE. We generated record financial results and our business continued to perform well due to the strength of our content and brand, which drove audience engagement and monetization across multiple platforms,\u201d said Nick Khan, WWE Chief Executive Officer. \u201cIn 2023, we\u2019re focused on continuing to execute on our key operational initiatives, such as the domestic licensing of our flagship programs,\u00a0Raw\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0SmackDown<\/em>, as well as the international licensing of our content in key markets. At the same time, we\u2019re focused on the review of strategic alternatives that we announced earlier this year, with the goal of maximizing value for all shareholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frank Riddick, WWE President & Chief Financial Officer, added \u201cFor the year, we achieved record revenue and Adjusted OIBDA, which was at the very high end of our upwardly revised guidance range. In 2022, Adjusted OIBDA increased 19% reflecting 18% revenue growth. Our financial performance was primarily driven by the return to a full year of ticketed live events, including the staging of two large-scale international events, as well as the contractual escalation of rights fees for our flagship weekly programming and premium live events. In 2023, we anticipate Adjusted OIBDA of $395 to $410 million, reflecting continued revenue growth and relatively flat operating expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fourth-Quarter Consolidated Results<\/strong><\/p>\n

Revenue\u00a0<\/strong>increased 5% to $325.3 million, primarily due to an increase in network revenues related to the timing of premium live events as well as higher monetization of third-party original programming. These increases were partially offset by a decline in consumer products licensing and eCommerce revenue. Results also included the staging of a large-scale international event in both the current and prior year periods.<\/p>\n

Operating Income\u00a0<\/strong>decreased 22%, or $17.9 million, to $62.7 million, as the increase in revenue was offset by an increase in operating expenses. The increase in operating expenses was primarily driven by higher costs to support the creation of content. To a lesser extent, costs associated with the Special Committee investigation and related matters as well as higher stock compensation expense also contributed to the increase in operating expenses. (See the \u201cSpecial Committee Investigation and Related Matters\u201d discussion for further details.) The Company\u2019s operating income margin decreased to 19% from 26%.<\/p>\n

Adjusted OIBDA\u00a0<\/strong>decreased 4% to $90.2 million. The Company\u2019s Adjusted OIBDA margin decreased to 28% from 30%.<\/p>\n

Net Income\u00a0<\/strong>was $38.8 million, or $0.45 per diluted share, a decrease from $60.9 million, or $0.73 per diluted share, primarily reflecting the decrease in operating performance.<\/p>\n

Cash flows generated by operating activities\u00a0<\/strong>were $120.3 million, an increase from $46.6 million, as lower net income was more than offset by the favorable timing of collections associated with the Company\u2019s large-scale international events.<\/p>\n

Free Cash Flow<\/strong>3<\/sup>was $43.0 million, an increase from $31.8 million, as the increase in cash flow generated by operating activities was partially offset by an increase in capital expenditures. For the three months ended December 31, 2022, the Company incurred $71.7 million of capital expenditures related to its new headquarter facility. Excluding the capital expenditures related to the new headquarter facility, Free Cash Flow for the three months ended December 31, 2022 was $114.7 million.<\/p>\n

Return of Capital to Shareholders<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Company returned $8.9 million of capital to shareholders in dividends in the fourth quarter of 2022. There were no share repurchases under the Company\u2019s existing stock repurchase program.<\/p>\n

\n

Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/span><\/em><\/a>\u00a0for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content on the\u00a0<\/span><\/em>WWE Network<\/span><\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Peacock<\/span><\/em><\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WWE continues to shatter records in it’s business as the company reports record numbers such as the viewership on Peacock going increasing to 70% from the previous year, and increasing it’s revenue to 5% from last year bringing it to $325 million for the company. Here’s much more from the press release: STAMFORD, Conn., February […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2883,"featured_media":74533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2192,4,3],"tags":[7774],"class_list":["post-117824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-wwe-corporate"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2883"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}