Under Armour Gets More Desperate, Plus Twitter's New Live Sports Push

Welcome to the latest episode of the Full-Court Finance podcast from Zacks Investment Research. On this week’s episode, Ben Rains dives into Under Armour’s (NYSE:UAA) current struggles before taking a look at Twitter’s (NYSE:TWTR) latest live streaming sports deals with Disney’s (NYSE:DIS) ESPN, Turner (NYSE:TWX) , MLB, and many others.

Under Armour reported adjusted break-even earnings last week, topping our Zacks Consensus Estimate. Meanwhile, Under Armour’s Q1 revenues popped by nearly 6% to reach $1.19 billion, which also beat our consensus estimate. With that said, investors clearly wanted to see more from Under Armour—and rightfully so.

Not too long ago CEO Kevin Plank’s company was considered by many to be on track to compete with Nike (NYSE:NKE) and Adidas (OTC:ADDYY) . These days, Under Armour compares more favorable against the likes of Lululemon (NASDAQ:LULU) and Columbia Sportswear (NASDAQ:COLM) as it fails to expand its footwear business and international presence quickly enough.

Under Armour even rolled out a new app for the NBA playoffs to try to boost its digital engagement at a time when direct-to-consumer sales have become vital. Going forward, Under Armour needs to pull out all of the stops as the company tries to grow its social media base on Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) Instagram and other platforms where it lags far behind many of its peers.

Rains then shifts to Twitter’s latest foray into the world of live streaming sports. Twitter’s newest deals include MLS and MLB coverage as well as partnerships with Turner’s Bleacher Report, The Players' Tribune, and Barstool Sports.

ESPN made one of the biggest splashes with a series of new Twitter deals that come on the back of its brand new ESPN+ streaming service. This space is one that investors should keep a close eye on moving forward as Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) , Hulu, Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) YouTube TV, and many more streaming players compete for coveted live sports-focused content.

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