PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024

CE100 Index Adds 3.6% as ‘Fun’ Online Betting Names Gain Double Digits

Earnings reports are in full swing on Wall Street, and they dictated the way Connected Economy 100 (CE100™) Index names traded this past week. For the most part, that direction was up.

To that end, the CE100 Index gained 3.6%. That gain has been enough to bring the month-to-date gain — roughly halfway into August — to 18.4%.

CE100 Relative Performance

Source: PYMNTS

The “Have Fun” pillar gained 7.9%, followed by the “Work” segment, which added 5.8%.

Within the “fun” group, which showed a continued shift to gaming, streaming and conducting other leisure activities online, Flutter Entertainment surged 25.1%, while DraftKings marched ahead 15%. Disney followed closely behind with a 14% gain.

London-based Flutter, which owns the U.S. firm FanDuel, said this past week that its average monthly players were up 14% year on year, reaching 8.7 million. In tandem with those gains, the company’s consolidated top line was up 11%.

Within the U.S., management said that its sports betting market share was 51%. In its commentary on the quarter, management said that there were “no discernible signs” of a consumer slowdown.

DraftKings enjoyed similar double-digit gains, adding 15% on the week. Earlier in the month, the company’s own earnings report showed that for the three months ended June 30, 2022, revenues gained 57% year on year to $466 million.

Revenue for the company’s B2C segment grew to $455 million, an increase of 68% as measured against last year. Average monthly unique B2C payers rose to 1.5 million, representing an increase of 30% compared to last year.

Disney Tops Netflix

Shares of Disney rocketed 14% higher in the wake of earnings that showed the company now has more paid subscribers than Netflix, having added 14.4 million subscribers in the most recent quarter.

Drilling down a bit, the company said that its three services have a combined 221.1 million paid subscribers, with Disney+ at 152.1 million, ESPN+ at 22.8 million and Hulu at 46.2 million. Netflix reported last month that it had 220.7 million paid memberships at the end of the second quarter.

In addition, Disney+ is raising its prices and adding an ad-supported tier in an effort to offer viewers more choices, hiking its prices by $3.

Read more: Disney+ Subscribers Top Netflix Just as Consumers Rethink Streaming Media Costs

Within the “work” designation, WeWork gained 22%, buoyed by results that showed continued momentum of people returning to the office. The company’s latest posting showed revenues gaining 37% year over year to $815 million.

Its portfolio of 777 locations across 38 countries now supports approximately 917,000 desks and 658,000 physical memberships, equating to 72% occupancy. Additionally, memberships increased 5% quarter over quarter and 33% year over year.

The momentum in those names was outpaced by Porch, which was up 42.4%. The firm, which serves home services and insurance industries, said that second quarter revenues were up 38% to $70.8 million. The company said that it continued to provide more software to home service companies involved in home buying; its average companies in the quarter increased to 28,730, up from 17,120 in Q2 2021.

‘Eat’ Pillar Declines

These gains were offset by losses in the “Eat” pillar, which declined 7.2%. Olo led to the downside here, as the name lost 39% on cautious commentary about the current operating environment. The company said this week that it added 3,000 new restaurants during the second quarter.

See also: Olo Adds Payments Platform to 3K New Eateries

Speaking on a conference call with investors, founder and CEO Noah Glass said that represented an increase of 11% year over year.

The new brands, expanded partnerships and an increase in transaction volume added up to what Glass said were “solid second-quarter results,” with the company generating $45.6 million in revenue — 27% higher than the second quarter of 2021. But during the conference call, Glass also noted that “while encouraged by the underlying trends in support of” digitization, macro-pressures have been leading to “elongated sales cycles” among enterprises.

Meanwhile, DoorDash declined 3.6% through the past five sessions. As noted in this space, orders and revenue grew in that period despite inflationary pressures, in part due to DashPass, the company’s subscription program, gaining ground.

“We do not believe the [inflation-related] increase in subtotals had a meaningful impact on order volume in Q2, largely because of ongoing adoption of DashPass,” the company’s quarterly investment letter stated. Total orders for the firm were up 23% year on year to 426 million, and marketplace gross order volumes were up 25% to $13 billion.

PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024