Strong Box Office Propels Disney to Profit Growth
May 08 2018 - 5:30PM
Dow Jones News
By Maria Armental
A box-office bonanza, driven by the performance of Marvel
Studios' "Black Panther," boosted Walt Disney Co. in the latest
quarter and returned the entertainment giant to profit growth.
Disney's slate of films -- though the blockbuster "Avengers:
Infinity War" premiered after the quarter ended -- and another
strong showing from parks and resorts helped it offset continued
weakness at television sports network ESPN, which has struggled to
attract and retain subscribers.
Shares, which lag the market with a 14% decline over the past 12
months, rose 0.6% to $102.40 in after-hours trading.
Disney, the world's largest entertainment company, remains
bullish on ESPN's sports programming and has made it a key piece of
its digital push.
Investing in direct-to-consumer digital platforms like ESPN+,
which launched last month, are among Chief Executive Robert Iger's
top priorities. The interest also helped drive Disney to pay nearly
$2.6 billion for majority control of technology company BamTech and
agree to a $52.4 billion stock deal for key assets of 21st Century
Fox Inc.
Comcast Corp. is also considering making a play for the Fox
assets, which include the Twentieth Century Fox TV and film studio
and Fox's 39% stake in European pay TV operator Sky PLC. It has
lined up around $60 billion in what would be an all-cash offer, The
Wall Street Journal reported.
Fox and Wall Street Journal publisher News Corp. share common
ownership.
Over all, Disney's fiscal second-quarter profit rose 23% to
$2.94 billion, or $1.95 a share. Excluding the impact from the U.S.
tax overhaul and other items, per-share profit rose to $1.84 from
$1.50 a year earlier.
Revenue rose 9% to $14.55 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had projected adjusted
earnings of $1.70 a share on $14.11 billion in revenue.
The company's parks and resorts posted another strong showing,
with revenue rising 13% while operating profit rose 27%. Meanwhile,
the studio-entertainment segment reported a 21% increase in revenue
and 29% improvement in operating profit.
Meanwhile, media networks, its largest segment by revenue and
home to Disney's cable networks and broadcast operations, saw
operating profit fall 6% while revenue rose 3% to $6.14
billion.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 08, 2018 17:15 ET (21:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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