Walt Disney Company Second Quarter Earnings On Tap

Just a reminder that Walt Disney Company is expected to announce its second quarter earnings today around 4:15pm EST.  Earnings per share are expected to come in at 57 cents on revenue of 9.58 billion for the quarter. That’s up from a year ago when earnings per share came in at 49 cents on revenue of 9.08 billion

I’ll be listening in on the 5pm investors conference call and will update with any pertinent information.  You can listen along beginning at 4:55pm here: http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/investors/events#1881.

• Company stock closed regular trading at $44.30, just 20 cents off its all-time high.
• Disney beat earnings expectations, reporting earnings per share of 58 cents on 9.56 billion dollars in revenue.  Shares are up in after-hours trading, hitting new all-time highs.
• Parks and Resorts Revenue Up 10% to $2.9B; Studio Entertainment Down 12% to $1.18B; Consumer Products Revenue Up 8% to $679M; Interactive Media Revenue Up 13% to $179M.
• Iger: “State of Consumer from Disney Standpoint is Relatively Solid;” “We Have Great Product Coming Online;” “Have Ability To Leverage ‘Avengers’ Success Into Something Much Bigger.”
• Profit rose to $1.143 billion from $942 million in the same quarter last year.  Profit in the theme park segment jumped 53 percent.
• At the start of the conference call, Company stock is up 1.35% to $44.90.

From the Conference Call:

• Greater attendance and spending at theme parks helped push higher profits.
• Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 coming out in 2013, Captain America 2 in 2014.  Sequel to The Avengers “in the works.”
• Demand for Avengers merchandise has been “very strong.”
• Brave, Frankenweenie, Wreck It Ralph in 2013; Oz the Great and Powerful, Lone Ranger, and Monsters Inc Prequel in 2014.
• 103 Disney Channels across the globe, bringing Disney into hundreds of markets.  Last three months, #1 channel for kids 2-11 in United States.  Top preschool shows as well.  ABC Family is #3 channel for females in “all key demos.”  ABC reaches 225 international markets.  China is a top priority, met with Vice President in China last month.
• Shanghai Disneyland a “critical investment.”  Land is prepared for construction.  “Vast and significant project.”
• Hong Kong Disneyland expansion is “proceeding nicely” with Toy Story Land and Grizzly Gulch.
• “Looking Forward” to Cars Land at California Adventure.  Makes California Adventure “An important and worthy neighbor to Disneyland.”
• All new Disney.com coming online later this year.
• Media Networks largest contributor to performance, ESPN and domestic Disney channels as main drivers.
• Parks and Resorts: Another “strong quarter.”
• Continued improvement in margins.
• Attendance at domestic parks up 7% , per capita spending up 5%
• Occupancy at Disney resorts up a little over 2% to just over 82%; per-room spending up 7%
• Confirms normalized pricing increasing profits.
• Disneyland set a new Q2 attendance record.
• Domestic reservations up 1%
• Q3 Bookings at cruise lines up 30% with over 90% occupancy.
• Interest in “The Hulk” also strong.  Popularity has grown significantly, resulting in more demand for Hulk products.
• Don’t think there will be a need to buy back characters like The X-Men
• Won’t be specific on Marvel attractions in theme parks.  There are some “encumbrances in Florida” that “precludes them” from building attractions.  California, Asia, and Europe don’t have these problems.  Imagineering group has been working for last year on attractions, including ramped up effort recently.
• Cars Land opening in the middle of June.  Culmination of the expansion in California Adventure.  May build new hotel in California, will build if there is an opportunity.
• Quarter was “pretty strong” on international attendance.  18%-22% international attendance at Walt Disney World.  Currently on very high end of that.  A lot of visitation from Brazil in particular.  Increasingly becoming important.  Canada always stays important.  At Disneyland, 10% international visitation, lots of it from Asia.
• Domestic attendance outside of Florida and California is relatively flat.  Big pick up in resident attendance and resident pass programs, particularly in California.  “A very good feeling about what’s to come” on Cars Land.

Conference Call concluded.  WDC stock currently up 50 cents, or 1.13%, to $44.80.