While the product may be fake, World Wrestling Entertainment's (NYSE: WWE) fourth-quarter loss was all to real. The athletic-entertainment company saw fourth-quarter profit fall 37%, matching analysts expectations with its earnings of 18 cents per share. A year ago, Vince McMahon's company raked in 30 cents per share. For the full year, WWE made 62 cents per share, down from 72 cents per share in 2007.Quarterly revenue fell 5% to $125.4 million from $132.6 million a year earlier. Revenue took the largest hit from a fall in live and televised entertainment revenue. The Street expected WWE to pull in revenue of $125.9 million. Full-year revenue rose to $526.5 million.
WWE announced that it will suspend work on its media center until economic conditions improve. This announcement follows last month's decision to jettison 60 jobs (which is roughly 10% of WWE's staff) in hopes of saving some green.
At last check, WWE was climbing the turnbuckle (a.k.a. rising higher) to the tune of a 0.3% gain. Nevertheless, WWE faces resistance at the round-number $10 level -- which has acted as both support and resistance in the past. Should the shares piledrive this resistance, their 50-day moving average looms overhead, ready to bodyslam the stock into submission.
With the stock mired in a rather substantial downtrend, the overhead resistance surely makes it seem that any road higher for the equity is fraught with peril.
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