Shares of Disney Fall on Concern of Future Revenue Growth

The giant media company exceeded third-quarter expectations.

Author:: Michael Brick
Publish date:: Nov 9, 2000 4:21 PM EST

The giant media company exceeded third-quarter expectations.

Shares of the media and entertainment giant

Walt Disney

fell sharply Thursday even as the company reported earnings that exceeded Wall Street's expectations.

Analysts worried that revenues will not grow in the coming quarter as demand for advertising slips, sports programming costs mount and the wildly successful

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

game show on Disney's

ABC

television network loses its luster.

"It's totally explainable, the softness coming out of a very strong up front," said Robert Iger, Disney's president, speaking to analysts in a conference call. "We look at all the economic reports -- Scrooge McDuck is our chief economist."

Still, he said, "we don't see the dismal future that everybody is talking about."

But Wall Street was not reassured. Disney finished Thursday regular trading down $5.75, or 16%, at $31.13.

Many analysts credit the game show, at times shown on ABC on successive nights, for the broadcast network's 64.8% operating income growth. But its ratings have slipped among the 18-49 year-olds advertisers covet. During the quarter, networks had to compete with the

Olympic Games

for advertising revenues.

The coming quarter will also lack demand for political advertising, which disappeared Tuesday with the election.

Both

Major League Baseball

and the

National Hockey League

renegotiated their contracts with the all-sports network

ESPN

for higher rates this year, wrote Richard R. Read, an analyst for

Credit Lyonnais Securities

in a research report. Read, who rates the stock a hold, cited the higher costs as a factor in the disappointing 2% operating income growth reported by Disney's cable television operations, which include ESPN.

For the fourth fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30, Disney reported net income of $240 million, or 11 cents a diluted share, compared with a net loss of $48 million, or 2 cents a diluted share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected earnings of 7 cents a share in the latest quarter, according to a poll by

First Call/Thomson Financial

Revenue grew to $6.03 billion from $5.69 billion in the 1999 quarter.

Disney also said it would take a charge of $272 million in its first fiscal quarter, ending Dec. 31, as a result of accounting changes. Together, the broadcast and cable networks reported a 14% increase in revenue to $2.19 billion, and a 26% increase in operating income to $460 million. Revenue grew 12% at the broadcasting unit. Operating income at the cable TV unit rose 7 percent.

Theme parks and resorts, including

Disneyland

and

Walt Disney World,

reported a 10% increase in revenue. Revenue from the consumer products division declined 7%.

Shares of

Disney Internet Group

(DIG) - Get Report

finished down 88 cents or 11%, at $6.75. The stock was created to track both online operations and direct marketing.

The online operation's revenue rose 9%, but direct marketing revenue fell 33%, resulting in a 6% overall revenue decline at the Internet group.