Disney Reports 14 Percent Rise in Quarterly Profit

The Walt Disney Co. reported Thursday that net income rose 14 percent in its fiscal fourth quarter to $1.24 billion on revenue of $10.78 billion.

Per-share earnings were 68 cents, about what Wall Street expected, but analysts were expecting revenue of $10.9 billion.

For the entire fiscal year, analysts expected $42.45 billion, and Disney delivered just $42.28 billion.

The stock was down fractionally to $50.04 during the regular session but was off more than 2 percent after the closing bell.

Operating income rose 11 percent to $2.3 billion, with growth at four of the five segments, the laggard being studio entertainment, which fell 32 percent to $80 million.

While The Avengers performed well during the quarter, results were hurt by marketing expenses for Frankenweenie, and the performance of Brave worldwide didn't quite match that of last year's Cars 2.

Operating at the media networks segment rose 7 percent to $1.6 billion, while parks and resorts scored an 18 percent rise to $497 million. Consmer products rose 29 percent to $267 million, and interactive showed an operating loss of $76 million, which was a 19 percent improvement compared with the year-ago quarter.

On the revenue front, media networks rose 2 percent to $4.9 billion, parks and resorts was up 9 percent to $3.4 billion, studio entertainment fell 4 percent to $1.4 billion, consumer products was up 8 percent to $883 million, and interactive dropped 14 percent to $10.8 billion.

On a conference call with analysts, Disney CEO Bob Iger praised the performance thus far of Wreck-It Ralph, which has earned $59 million domestically since opening Friday, citing is as proof that the acquisition of Pixar "reinvigorated" Disney's entire pipeline of animated films.

He called Avengers a "global phenomenon" and said Cars Land has made California Adventure an "extraordinary" theme park.

Some of the upcoming films Iger touted were Oz: The Great and Powerful, set for March; Iron Man 3, set for May; and The Lone Ranger, set for July.