DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (DWA) is weathering the storm on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
A day after CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg announced an upcoming large-scale layoff and decreasing annual movie output, the company closed the regular NASDAQ trading day at $19.67, down $1.64 per share from the prior day’s close, or a negative 7.70 percentage points.
Thursday’s close saw DWA settle at $21.31 per share, which was up from Wednesday; however, shares experienced an after-hours dip to open Friday at $19.38 per share.
DWA hit a 52-week low of $18.30 within the first 20 minutes of regular trading Friday. Afterward, the stock recovered and rose, reaching a intraday high of $20.08 per share at 10:40 a.m. ET.
After a modest decline, shares stabilized somewhat and spent most of the day trading between $19.20 and $19.50. A late push around 2:30 p.m. ET boosted the price to end at $19.67.
For comparison’s sake, the company’s 52-week high came in at $35.37 per share.
The stock slip stems from an announcement DreamWorks Animation made Thursday that the company plans to cut approximately 500 jobs across the board and that it will release just two films per year going forward, down from three.
The studio currently employs around 2,200 staffers and the cuts would make up about 18 percent of the workforce.
In a conference call with the media Thursday afternoon, the struggling animation company additionally revealed that top brass — including marketing chief Dawn Taubin, Vice Chairman Lou Coleman and COO Mark Zoradi — would be exiting.