Walt Disney Continues To Profit From Frozen; Analysts Positive

By Sarah Roden

Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) released second quarter earnings for fiscal year 2015 on Tuesday morning. The release of the report was moved up so Disney board members could attend the funeral of Dave Goldberg, CEO of Survey Monkey and the late husband of Sheryl Sandberg. As analysts looked at the report, most are wondering how much longer Disney will be able to reap the benefits of Frozen.

For the second quarter, Disney posted $12.46 billion in revenue, beating the analyst consensus of $12.25 billion and marking a 10% year-over-year increase. Disney posted impressive diluted earnings per share of $1.23, well above the consensus of $1.11 and marking a 14% year-over-year increase. These results do not include the recent open of Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, which has opened at number one in every market thus far.

Disney saw a 6% year-over-year increase in revenue derived from its Parks and Resorts segments, which brought in $3.8 billion in quarterly revenue. Disney attributed the increase to higher levels of spending at the parks due to higher prices of tickets, food, hotels, and merchandise. Revenue from the Media Networks segment increased 13% year-over-year to $5.8 billion. However, the segment’s operating income decreased (2%) from the same quarter a year prior due to a decrease at ESPN. The ESPN network experienced higher programming and production costs caused by higher college football and NFL programming costs. Operating results for ABC Family remained relatively flat. A 10% year-over-year increase in Consumer Products revenue was largely driven by Frozenmerchandise.

Although Disney does not provide forward-looking guidance, Disney CEO Bob Iger is optimistic about the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Iger noted the unprecedented excitement surrounding the movie on a conference call with investors.

Following the earnings release on May 6, Daniel Salmon of BMO Capital maintained an Outperform rating on Disney and raised his price target from $115 to $125. In addition to Disney beating his EPS estimate, “operating income for all segments except Media Networks was above [his] expectations and consensus.” Salmon added, “The largest % outperformance came from the Studio segment despite a 10% decline in OI due to Frozen theatrical and home entertainment comps. Parks and Resorts OI was up 24%, while Consumer Products OI was up 32% and Interactive was up 86%.”

Daniel Salmon has rated Disney six times since May 2013, earning an 83% success rate recommending the stock and a +19.4% average return per DIS rating. Overall, Salmon has a 73% success rate recommending stocks with a +11.9% average return per rating.


Separately on May 6, John Janedis of Jefferies reiterated a Buy rating on Disney and raised his price target from $120 to $125. Janedis noted that Disney’s earnings were above estimate, “with the upside coming from all segments, most notably the Studio.” Janedis is increasing his full-year EPS estimate by $0.07 to $5.17 due to assumptions that “some of the beat in F2Q is offset by a tough comp in ESPN affiliate deferral revenue in F3Q.”

John Janedis has rated Disney eight times since May 2012, earning an 83% success rate recommending the stock with a +16.4% average return per DIS rating. Overall, Janedis has a 74% success rate recommending stocks with a +24.8% average return per rating.


On average, the top analyst consensus for Disney on TipRanks is Strong Buy.

To see more ratings for Disney, visit TipRanks today.