WWE's stock at lowest point since 2003

[brighamosity]

I'm not sure why this hasn't been reported on wrestlezone, but it can be found on many other sites or with a simple Google search. WWE's stock has been steadily declining the past few weeks and yesterday, hit it's lowest point since April 2003. And today was even lower. Now this is not a thread about what sucks about WWE or how they need to get rid of PG or whatever. I'm just stating the facts: their stock is dropping.

My question is, what do you think will happen? WWE's annual shareholders meeting is on April 27th and the quarterly conference call with investors is May 3rd. How will Vince justify this? Will anything change? Do you think the stock will rebound, or will it continue to drop?

 

[#heel420]

I'm surprised to read that it's down when the product is improving. Wrestlemania had a record breaking buy rate this year. And with the signing of Brock Lesnar things are looking up. But the stock market is always up and down I'm sure it will rebound.

 

[Rammsteinerteen]

WWE is a huge company, and though this is a major let down, I honestly think it's nothing of massive worry for them. They succeeded big time in WrestleMania buys which sure helps out a lot, but anyhow, I don't think this means anything. They'll end up rebounding I think.

But wouldn't it be something if WWE went bankrupt like WCW? Too doubtful, but one can seriously think, can't they?

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The reality is that the public ownership of WWE has failed as it's not the kind of company that delivers regular solid returns, it's basically a TV show... IF the stock goes much lower, Vince would be well advised to simply re-buy the company. Whether he can afford that now is another matter... The McMahon household may soon have to make a choice, WWE or Linda's political career...

 

[Yesiamaduck]

I personally think it's mostly down to the continued failure of their movie department, movies are expensive to produce folks and I don't think even the relatively low budget movies of WWE ever really get a good return. It wouldn't surprise me if WWE Movies is the first thing to go if such drastic decisions get made at the next meeting.

 

[Reflection]

I think that if wwe's stock value has dipped even after wrestlemania, it won't come back up anytime soon. This is the time of the year, rumble to mania, when the wwe makes the most profits. From here onwards, its the off season. Thats why if they are to make a considerable recovery, they have to wait till january.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

I actually did a little research of WWE's stock price history and in most years Stocks tend to go down during April to June while Jan to April usually has stocks rising.

No doubt this has to do with WM with the fan interest, generated revenue, and media attention.

Strangely enough stocks continued to drop in 2011's Jan to April period. I guess this goes to show the lack of general interest WM27 had.

 

[DeathClutch]

Things will rebound, WWE is in the middle of a period that is hated by the masses and loved by the sponsors, and WWE have done everything they can to clean their image up after the Benoit tragedy and rightfully so.

Personally I think WWE needs to go back to what worked in the past, the current model is old and over used which reflects in their stock being down.
All the matches feel the same, all the belts feel the same, every show feels the same, you miss one show you haven't missed much there's nothing that separates them from one another other than WrestleMania.

The fact WWE are bring back the older guys like Rock, Lesnar, possibly Austin/Foley it makes me wonder if WWE will bring back some of the older championships that were over in the past to try and add something to their current product.

 

[Danger Burger]

Well if we look at the context of the entire world and the Global recession etc etc, is it not just common sense that it would be at its lowest? Everythings at its lowest except apple!! It'll bounce back, like everything else will, but its gna take a while!!

We can see the product is fine, not perfect, but were still watching and thats all the stockmarket guys will care about!! Vince could talk his way out of anything! Thats not important though because the McMahon family owns i think its 70% of the stock and have 96% decision making power!

 

[George Steele's Barber]

I don't have the numbers in front of me but this is surprising news. I would expect late '08 or early '09 to have been WWE's low point just like the rest of the market. WWE must have a screwy BETA.

Without doing any research I can only speculate that it has to do with some or all of the following:

1) Film industry is failing

2) WWE is a global company. The EU is in rough shape right now and Asia is not meeting growth expectations.

3) The WWE network is eating up cash and hurting WWE's bottom line because Mort Feingold, CPA said soooooooo.

4) A couple of years ago I read an article that basically described WWE as a dividend stock as opposed to a stock that you expect to grow. The author made the company sound like they were paying massive dividends compared to other companies. If WWE has failed to maintain that pace of dividends investors may have been selling and moving back in to growth stocks. A pretty good investment considering the market has grown considerably in 2012.

5) The board's decision to keep Johnny Ace.

It should be interesting to see where this goes. Everyone is speculating on the sponsors listed on Brock's shirt. This could become more regular as part of WWE programming. They could also add advertising on the barriers like soccer or ring apron. You could have wrestlers thanking their sponsors after big wins or during promos like you see with MMA. You could have more wrestlers in the commercials to get the DVR crowd to stop fast forwarding. More Miz and Jared from Subway segments. These things all take away from the program but the fans already put up with a lot and may put up with more.

 

[scomvp316]

The biggest problem is WWE has put themselves into a dark corner with more sponsorship than generating new fans. Raw for a while from a ratings point is at a median of where VKM wants it to be between 2.7-3.1. Thats what is was mostly at before the Attitude Era. DVD sales has been better than most years but alot of fans don't appreciate the mass editing of non-WWE archival material. They abandoned the Box Set theme and Box Sets are still very hot in the DVD/Blu-Ray department. WWE Films needs to be re-worked with a deal with a production company like Lionsgate or Dreamworks and mention nothing of WWE or its related talents. WWE Network has a little to do with the lack luster bottom line but recently WWE ttok out a $200 mill line of credit for the first few years of massive losses which is similar to the sports leagues networks for years 1-4. Product is getting better but things like Santino as a single champion and lack luster promos outside of co-main events is hurting the product. WWE has to find a way around the sponsorship deals that may hinder certain product development such as certain matches having or not having blood. WWE has to figure out how to bring at the minimal 25% of lost fans since 2002. Its not a lost cause and fans under the age of 12 sales wise can only get you so far in a organized violence controlled entertainment PG product. JCP was PG but was able to push the envelope especially on PPV's. Weekly shows should be PG friendly for sponsors but PPV's should be PG-13 to TV-14 seeing PPV's are for the more mature fan to begin with!

 

[Brahma_Bull9]

I'm surprised to read that it's down when the product is improving. Wrestlemania had a record breaking buy rate this year. And with the signing of Brock Lesnar things are looking up. But the stock market is always up and down I'm sure it will rebound.

Do you think most of the stock holders watch Raw week in and out? I don't think so... The stock market could have so many reasons as to why they are selling this, many not really even having anything to do with the state of the WWE or what it does.

It will probably rebound, Wrestlemania maybe will take awhile to improve it? but honestly it is so far off the radar I find it hard to believe that any traders even were aware that it sold so well. If they keep it up and even if they don't I think it will undoubtedly rebound. This has me thinking about buying some though.

 

[scomvp316]

One of the biggest reasons why WWE stock isn't doing well from a no-fan potential shareholder is the predicted 2-5 year financial module of the WWE along with their expenses percentage to capital. Much like the debt vs GDP % political firestorm we all have been hearing for the last couple of years from both sides of the aisle!