Shares of DraftKings have climbed 56% in 2023 so far.
Scott Eisen/Getty Images for DraftKings
DraftKings
is set to report earnings after the close on Thursday. The sports-betting firm has landed some cautious thumbs-up from analysts just before the results come in.
Wall Street is expecting an adjusted loss of 46 cents a share on sales of $801 million for fourth quarter, according to FactSet. That would mark a wider adjusted loss than the 35 cents a share recorded in the year-ago quarter, but a stronger sales performance than the $473 million reported in 2021 fourth quarter.
For full year 2022, the company said in November that it anticipates a revenue range of $2.16 billion to $2.19 billion.
Shares of
DraftKings
(ticker: DKNG) have risen 56% so far this year, closing at $17.78 on Wednesday.
Some analysts remain upbeat about the short-term, but less confident about the betting firm’s long-term goals.
Susquehanna analyst Joseph Stauff says the company likely will beat revenue estimates and post a narrower-than-expected per-share loss for the fourth quarter. Now his bigger concern is what full-year 2023 guidance will look like, now that the NFL season is in the rearview mirror and college basketball’s March Madness tournament is coming up, he wrote Wednesday. The analyst maintained his Positive rating and raised his price target on DraftKings stock to $24 from $19.
Stifel analyst Jeffrey Stantial also expects a fourth-quarter earnings beat. But he is concerned about the near-term risk to the company’s market share as DraftKings will face some competitors like FanDuel, which is owned by Flutter Entertainment (
UK.FLTR
).
In addition, “profitability likely remains several quarters away,” he writes.
Stantial maintained his Hold rating on Tuesday and raised his price target on the stock to $17 from $15. DraftKings stock, however, could be worth more than $40 in the long term, he writes.
“We believe investors may need to move past a long list of potential headwinds to market share in 2023 before getting comfortable again with management’s long-term targets,” he added.
The company recently slashed its workforce by 3.5%.
Write to Emily Dattilo at emily.dattilo@dowjones.com
Credit: marketwatch.com