Disney posts growth in all of its segments
A wild ride at the box office and strong sales from ABC television shows such as “Desperate Housewives” helped power Walt Disney Co.’s second-quarter profit well past Wall Street’s expectations.
With gains across all business segments, the media conglomerate reported a 27% jump in net income to $931 million, or 44 cents a share, from $733 million, or 37 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $8.07 billion, up from $8.03 billion.
Disney’s earnings per share handily beat estimates of 38 cents from analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, although while revenue fell below analyst expectations of $8.13 billion.
“Disney’s segments continue to be firing on all cylinders, driving towards a fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth,” Goldman Sachs analyst Anthony Noto said in a note.
In a conference call with analysts, Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger said the numbers reflected continued growth companywide in the quarter ended March 31. “We’ve had another excellent quarter.”
He noted the upcoming third installment of the hit “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise looked promising, and said that the Burbank-based company had benefited from growth at the Disney Channel and brisk business at its theme parks.
“We’re particularly gratified how well our Disney parks and resorts did,” Iger said, noting that Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., posted a record attendance over Easter. That helped to fuel a 19% increase to $254 million in operating income in the parks and resort unit.
The biggest gains during the quarter came in the studio division, where operating income rose 60% to $235 million, helped by the box office success of “Wild Hogs” and reduced distribution expenses from releasing fewer film titles than a year earlier.
Income in the company’s broadcast networks including ABC rose 33% to $212 million, because of fewer hours of sports programming and strong international and domestic syndication sales of ABC shows, including “Lost” and new series “Ugly Betty.” Cable networks income increased 19% to $963 million, driven by advertising sales and subscriber growth at ESPN.
Income from consumer products rose 20% to $125 million, due in part to strong sales of merchandise from the animated film “Cars.”
Results were released after the market closed. Shares of Disney rose 49 cents to $36.55. Shares have climbed 6.7% this year.
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