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News > Companies
WWF 1Q profit slammed
August 23, 2001: 11:06 a.m. ET

Lower revenue leads to profit drop, but gain from sale lifts EPS over target
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc. said Thursday its fiscal first-quarter profit was slammed by lower ratings and increased operating costs.

The Stamford, Conn.-based company earned just under $12 million, or 16 cents a share, for the quarter ended July 27, down from $16.3 million, or 22 cents a share, it earned from continuing operations a year earlier. But it beat the forecast of 10 cents a share of analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call.

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About half the profit -- $5.8 million, or 8 cents a share -- came from the revaluation and gain on the sale of its position in one of its licenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses were $25.6 million, up $5 million from a year earlier. The company cited increased overhead of its entertainment complex in Times Square in New York, higher advertising and promotion expenses, and increased consulting fees.

Revenue fell to $90.7 million from $101.9 million a year earlier. Most of the drop came from a 32 percent decline in branded merchandise revenue to $18.3 million from $26.7 million a year earlier. WWF said the decline was "principally due to a decrease in licensing revenues resulting from the timing of cash receipts." Revenue from live and televised entertainment slipped 4 percent to $72.4 million from $75.2 million.

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The company said ratings for its "Raw is War" and "SmackDown!" programs increased in the last four weeks, and that its July pay-per-view program had 70 percent higher revenue than the same event a year ago. But it gave no any specific earnings guidance in its earnings statement. graphic

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.