Analysts Expect Scant Change in Disney 1st-Quarter Results

Walt Disney Co.’s first-quarter profit will be little changed, as film profits stretch to meet last year’s records, analysts said Monday.

Based on the average estimate of 10 analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research, the company’s fiscal first-quarter earnings are forecast at 92 cents a share, compared with the 91 cents earned for the same quarter a year ago.

Disney films are performing well at the box office, but the Burbank-based company’s film division had a record first quarter the year before. That quarter included the hit “The Santa Clause” and the video release of the studio’s classic “Snow White.”

Analysts said Disney could announce its earnings as early as today.

Fiscal 1995’s first-quarter results included a gain of 6 cents from restructuring at Euro Disney, the theme park outside Paris that Disney has an interest in. Without the gain, Disney’s earnings for the first quarter of the current fiscal year would be 8% to 9% higher, analysts said.

Analysts expect to see improved operating income in the company’s theme parks and consumer products.

Analyst Jessica Reif of Merrill Lynch & Co. predicted in a recent report that Disney’s theme parks, paced by strong attendance and high hotel occupancy rates, will post operating income of $190 million, a 14% increase over a year ago.

Disney’s consumer products division, benefiting from higher licensing fees for merchandise from last summer’s “Pocahontas” movie and more stores, will post a 17% rise in operating income, to $205 million, Reif said.

Operating income in Disney’s film division will probably be little changed at $441 million, Reif estimated.

Disney’s fiscal 1996 earnings will also be hurt by the company’s pending $19-billion acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC Inc. The purchase, approved by both companies’ shareholders Jan. 4, awaits Federal Communications Commission approval, expected in mid-February.

Analyst Harold Vogel of Cowen & Co. predicted that interest payments and costs for the acquisition will reduce Disney’s fiscal 1996 earnings to $2.55 a share, from $3.