Disney Earnings Beat Wall Street Expectations
The Walt Disney Company released its first earnings report since wrapping up its $71.3 billion deal to buy much of 21st Century Fox’s film and television assets. It was a boffo quarter for the media and entertainment giant, one that saw Disney handily beating expectations as it logged revenues of $14.9 billion on earnings per share of $1.61.
Wall Street analysts projected that the company behind the Disney theme parks, ESPN, and Pixar would post quarterly earnings of $1.58 a share on sales of $14.5 billion. The company attributed the stronger-than-expected results to increased operating income from ESPN and the popularity of its domestic resorts. That helped off-set declines in its broadcasting division where lower viewership at ABC took a bite out of ad sales. It also cushioned the drop in its film business. Disney fielded a massive blockbuster in the $1.2 billion-grossing “Captain Marvel,” but even that windfall couldn’t match the combined success of “Black Panther” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” which did a massive amount of their business in the prior-year quarter.
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It’s a time of enormous change at the entertainment conglomerate. Not only is it absorbing Fox into its global operations, it is also preparing to launch Disney Plus, a new streaming service that will undercut Netflix with its $6.99 monthly pricing.
Disney’s stock has been on a tear in recent weeks, rising more than 20% as its market capitalization has topped $240 billion.
The Fox acquisition is expected to result in thousands of job losses, but so far staffing cuts have been enacted at a slower pace than anticipated. After assuming control of Fox, Disney did lay off many senior staffers on the film side, but the layoffs haven’t been as deep as expected.
