3 Important Takeaways From Lionsgate Entertainments' Q3 Report

Movie and TV content studio Lionsgate Entertainment (NYSE:LGF-A) (NYSE:LGF-B) reported second-quarter results this week. The company posted both revenues and earnings far above Wall Street's estimates, sending the two stock classes more than 13% higher on Friday. The studio's sales rose 9% year over year, to $984 million, while adjusted earnings held firm at $0.22 per diluted share. Both of these results came as a surprise to Wall Street analysts, whose consensus estimates called for a net loss of $0.05 per share on approximately $312 million in top-line revenues. That's the headline material, but the plain numbers never tell the full story. Paying close attention to the entire report will help you separate truly fantastic companies from the wannabes and the has-beens. Let's take a deeper dive into Lionsgate's results and earnings call to get a better grip on the real news here. Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer started the conference call by acknowledging how quickly the entertainment industry is changing right now, and how hard his company must fight to stay relevant. "To paraphrase Mad Men's Don Draper, it's a different universe today," he said. "I want to start by emphasizing how well our businesses are positioned in this incredibly disruptive environment and highlight their strong performance."