Disney Results Boosted by Star Wars, Zootopia
May 10 2016 - 4:56PM
Dow Jones News
By Tess Stynes
Walt Disney Co. said its earnings rose 1.7% in the latest
quarter as the media conglomerate benefited from the continued
popularity of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and a strong
performance by the animated animal comedy "Zootopia."
However, shares of the Burbank, Calif., company fell 5.9% to
$100.20 in recent after-hours trading as per-share earnings,
excluding certain one-time items, and revenue missed expectations.
Through Tuesday's close, the stock has risen roughly 20% over the
past three months.
Investors have remained focused on subscriber trends at the
company's ESPN sports network and the effect of "cord-cutting" and
"skinny bundles" on Disney's television business.
Earlier on Tuesday, ESPN and Verizon Communications Inc. said
they settled a yearlong legal dispute over how the sports network
is distributed by the phone giant's Fios unit. ESPN has been left
out of several channel packages over the years, but in February,
Verizon revamped its base packages to include one with sports
channels like ESPN and one without.
A likely topic on the earnings conference call will be Disney's
CEO succession plans in the wake of Tom Staggs -- once viewed as
the heir apparent to Chief Executive Robert Iger, stepping down
from the No. 2 executive post.
For the period ended April 2, Disney reported a profit of $2.14
billion, or $1.30 a share, up from $2.11 billion, or $1.23 a share,
a year earlier. Revenue increased 4.1% to $12.97 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of
$1.40 and revenue of $13.19 billion.
Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 10, 2016 16:41 ET (20:41 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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