Walt Disney Announce Better Than Expected Results, Shares gain (DIS)
Entertainment Company, Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) announced its quarterly results on Wednesday. The Company reported a 21% increase in its profits; despite a loss from the science fiction film “John Carter”-which bombed, beating Street’s estimates.
According to Company, stronger revenues from its theme park business and rising revenues from cable networks which includes sports powerhouse ESPN, helped boost its revenues for the quarter.
The Company posted fiscal second quarter earnings of $1.1 billion and a 6 percent increase in revenue to $9.629 billion.
After adjusting onetime expenses, earnings per share rose 18 percent to 58 cents. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting earnings of 55 cents a share.
The quarterly results did not take into account strong results from Disney’s blockbuster superhero movie ‘The Avengers,’ which set an industry record on May 6, grossing $207.4 million in ticket sales in its first weekend.
Total worldwide sales for the movie stood at $702 million.
Meanwhile, the film studio recorded an $84 million loss in operating income, following drubbing of ‘John Carter,’ which cost $250 million to produce and millions of dollars for marketing activities.
Lately, Disney earnings have received a strong boost from its media unit, which includes the sports channel ESPN and ABC.
Operating earnings in cable broadcast unit increased 13 percent to $1.7 billion in the latest quarter. Earnings at the theme park unit soared 53 percent to $222 million.
Commenting over results, Janney Montgomery Scott, analyst Tony Wible, said, “You’ve got a parks recovery that’s underway, and you have a cable network business that’s best in class. It showed good growth on the top-line there,” rating Company as ‘buy’ at $49 target.
Post earnings announcement, Company’s shares climbed up 1.7 percent to $45.10 in after-hours trade, up from an earlier close of $44.30 on the New York Stock Exchange.
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Post Written By: Ed Liston
Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht. |
