An executive can offer investors a view that turns out to be wrong without committing fraud, a U.S. District Court judge said today in granting DreamWorks Animation’s motion to dismiss a class action shareholder suit. The case revolved around 2013 claims by CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and then-CFO Lewis Coleman that they…

Any good news for DreamWorks Animation at the 2014 global box office came at an exorbitant cost. While the toon studio’s slate was up 36% over last year at the global B.O. with $1.18B across three movies — Mr. Peabody & Sherman, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Penguins Of Madagascar, productions costs for DreamWorks…

UPDATE: DreamWorks Animation just disclosed the SEC investigation in its conference call with analysts and says it’s cooperating. The company took a $13.5M writedown on Turbo in February. DWA told analysts that it won’t comment further on the matter. Shares were down 8.2% after the news; if that holds tomorrow then it…

The DreamWorks Animation CEO still has a lot invested in snails — with Netflix carrying the studio’s animated series Turbo FAST — and says the film’s failure doesn’t mean the TV show will skid off track. “We believe the overall Turbo franchise…will be a successful and profitable piece of business for years to come,” Je…

So much for CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg’s prediction that Turbo would be profitable. DreamWorks Animation‘s shares are down 5.6% in post-market trading after releasing a Q4 earnings report that includes a $13.5M impairment charge, equal to 12 cents a share, for the film, which the company attributes to “its performance…

Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne thinks so, sticking with his bearish case today following a year when the studio’s stock soared 114% to $35.50. He raised his target price this morning — but just to $31, which is why he still has an “underweight” recommendation for the stock. The market’s current valuation…

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 3, 2013 — Turbo and his Fast Action Stunt Team are challenging the world to “snail up!” as they make their global television debut on Christmas Eve – Tuesday, December 24th at 12:01 AM PST – with the launch of DreamWorks Animation’s all new Turbo FAST series, exclusively in all Netflix territories…

I expected shares to be up after yesterday’s report, where Q3 revenues and profits soundly topped analyst expectations. But I didn’t think DreamWorks Animation would be +18% in afternoon trading, after touching $33.02 — the highest it’s been since September 2010. What’s going on? “It looks like a short squeeze” — the…

It’s a low bar. But the projection by the DreamWorks Animation CEO in a conference call with analysts should reassure investors who feared that the company would have to record an impairment charge for its summer release about a snail who dreams about competing in the Indy 500. The film, which cost about $127M to…

The company’s had a strong run lately following better-than-expected box office sales for the March release The Croods, and potentially lucrative TV production deals with Netflix and Super RTL. DreamWorks Animation shares are up more than 17% over the last two months and 55.5% over the last five. But the bull run may…

The Dreamworks Animation CEO attributes his movie’s problems to an “oversaturated marketplace” as the release was overwhelmed by family friendly competition. “We hit a perfect storm here,” Jeffrey Katzenberg told analysts in a call to discuss Q2 earnings. The release on July 17 “was just a bad date.” This summer…

The stock is down 7% midday as investors try to determine how much, or little, DreamWorks Animation can expect from Turbo following its weaker-than-expected $31.1M domestic opening weekend box office results. “Investors will probably shoot first and ask questions later given the domestic performance,” says Stifel…