May 8, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE Payback review, WWE financials, plus tons of news

WWE announced its first quarter financial results showing more revenue but with profits well down from the same period last year.

The first quarter, which doesn’t include WrestleMania, generated $188,444,000 in revenue and posted an $897,000 profit. For the first quarter of 2016, the numbers were $171,100,00 in revenue and $14,111,000 in profits.

The WrestleMania business rundown won’t be released until early August.

The disappointing profits saw the stock drop $1 per share in price to $19.79 per share and a $1.51 billion company market value. WWE had alerted investors after WrestleMania that first quarter profits would be lower than at first indicated, but even with that, Wall Street was expecting profits closer to $2.0 to $2.5 million.

The profits once again failed to cover the dividend of $9,169,320. But overall cash on hand did stay relatively even, as it was $267,140,000 at the end of 2016 (a figure bolstered by a lot of money in loans) and on 3/31 it was up to $270,683,000.

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