Unlock stock picks and a broker-level newsfeed that powers Wall Street.

Comcast under pressure, Hasbro stock surges: Trending Tickers

In This Article:

Wealth host Brad Smith and Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Alexandra Canal take a closer look at some of today's trending tickers.

Comcast (CMCSA) stock falls after reporting a greater-than-expected loss in broadband customers.

Hasbro (HAS) stock surges after its first quarter earnings beat estimates. The company also maintained its full-year guidance.

To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Wealth here.

00:00 Speaker A

Now time for some of today's trending tickers. We're watching Comcast and Hasbro. Joining me now we've got Yahoo Finance senior reporter Alexandra Canal. Ali, first up, we got to talk a little Comcast here. You're listening into this call, the company's shares right now, we we're seeing them falling after reporting more broadband and TV customer losses than analysts expected in the first quarter. The Comcast company clocked losses of 199,000 customers. Analysts they expected a loss of just over 144,000. What what more color, I wonder, did you hear from the call?

00:38 Ali

Yeah, look, the broadband losses, that's been a consistent headwind for this company, main driver why the stock is down today. Now, on the call, they did say that they are launching several strategic plans to try and offset some of this. Now, a lot of the downtick in these subscriber numbers has to do with the intense competition that's out there. These competitors like AT&T, T-Mobile, bundling mobile plans with high-speed internet. Comcast is introducing new pricing models. They're also introducing a five-year price lock for Xfinity internet customers. They're hoping that enhances value. They're hoping that reduces churn, but they did say on the call that it likely is going to take a few quarters for that to really take effect. Now, outside of the broadband struggles, the company is very focused on its theme park business. They have Epic Universe opening up next month in Orlando. They're also expanding its theme parks internationally to uh to a new area right outside of London. And then on the streaming side, peacock also showed some improvements. They added 5 million subscribers in the quarter. That brings their total sub count to 41 million. They also were able to narrow losses to 250 million compared to 639 million in the prior year. So still losing money, but better and better each quarter. They just signed deals with the NBA. They're looking to bring more entertainment on board. Um so so that's all the positives. Now, when it comes to the future with all the tariff uncertainty, the macro uncertainty, we know for companies like Comcast, advertising is most exposed. They said they are well positioned right now. They're not seeing any major impacts right now, but that could change the longer this uncertainty progresses. So advertising is something to watch. Year-over-year, we did see ad revenue decline by 7%, but they said that was due to the tough comps with sports, political ad spend, taking that out, flat year over year.

03:08 Speaker A

And you mentioned the T word tariffs. Let's get to another company that's certainly going to have something to say about that. And that is Hasbro surging after a big beat in first quarter revenue and profits. Adjusted earnings per share came in at a dollar and four cents versus the 65 cents that analysts had expected. The toymaker also said that it's not changing its full-year guidance given the uncertainty of the tariff environment. The CFO saying that the strength of its Wizards brand, licensing and asset light model are offsetting tariff pressures for right now. Shares rejoicing on that as investors are sending shares higher by about 14.8, 14.9%.

04:03 Ali

Yeah, big beat here, the digital gaming side of the business. And we have seen their physical toy products. It's really lagged over the past three years. So this has been a big strategic shift for this company. Revenue for Wizards of the Coast and Digital gaming segment that surged 46%. They credited games like Dungeons and Dragons and Monopoly Go. And what stands out to me when you look at the future of media entertainment is that games seem to be where it's at. I was just at a panel last night with a few private equity investors and Sarnoff who used to run Warner Brothers was there as well. And there was this clear read through that when you look into the future, gaming is paramount. And AI is a big part of that. You're going to have a lot of user-generated content now. People are going to be able to create these games very, very easily. And then you have the fandom around it. So the fact that Hasbro has this to offset some of that tariff impact is huge for this company. Now, executives did warn that the longer tariffs progress, if there's more uncertainty, that could potentially lead to some job losses as they try to absorb as much cost as they can here. But they are trying to outsource to other areas, not be totally reliant on China, which we've had heard from other companies. But if the tariff levels, if they stick to where they are today, it could register a hit to full-year profits up to 300 million. But they're hoping that some of the strategies that they have to mitigate uh that impact could reduce that hit.

06:09 Speaker A

Right. Maybe more entertainment content, media content on that side could be.

06:14 Ali

Yeah, yeah. Exactly. And and if you think of some other companies out there, like the New York Times, for example, what have they been doing? They've been leaning in on games as well. So digital gaming for a lot of these physical companies, something to watch out for.

06:33 Speaker A

Yeah, you know, I just don't expect puzzle games or the New York Times crossword to have a feature film in a big screen. So I don't know.

06:44 Ali

That's true. And and really, that's a great point. It's all about the IP, right? I mean, you you see some of these shows that are popular, like the Last of Us today, all stems from these games, Minecraft movie coming out. So the IP is a big driver.

07:08 Speaker A

Yeah, and that's no knock to the New York Times and the crossword.

07:16 Ali

Are you a subscriber for the games?

07:20 Speaker A

I am not a subscriber for the games.

07:24 Ali

I'm not either, but apparently, I'm apparently we're missing out.

07:29 Speaker A

Yeah, well, I suck at crosswords, so.

07:33 Ali

I do too.

07:35 Speaker A

Thanks so much, Ali. Appreciate it. You can scan the QR code below to track the best and worst performing stocks of the session with Yahoo Finance's trending tickers page.