On Tuesday, Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS) reported a quarterly revenue that could not reach forecasts, due to lower advertising revenues of ESPN sports channel and the disappointing results of the film business in comparison to last year's success of the film "Star Wars: The Awakening forces".
However, a signal of potential stability for investors came from the statement of the company head – Bob Iger, who said he would remain at the helm after the end of the current contract in June 2018.
The unexpected decline in revenues overshadowed the Disney profits, which exceeded the forecast of Wall Street. The profit excluding certain items of balance was $ 1.55 per share, while analysts on average were waiting it at $ 1.49. Profit from the theme parks in the US and abroad has grown by 13%.
Total revenue of Disney fell 3% on an annualized basis, to $ 14.78 billion for the quarter ended 31 December. Analysts polled by Reuters on average had forecast a small increase in revenue to $ 15.26 billion.
Revenue of cable networks division, which includes ESPN and Disney Channel, dropped 2.1% to $ 4.43 billion. Operating profit decreased by 4% to $ 1.4 billion.
Global box office of the movie "Cast Away-one: Star Wars Stories" totaled more than $ 1 billion, but fell short of the $ 2 billion collected by the movie "Star Wars: The Awakening forces" a year earlier. Operating profit of the movie division fell 17% to $ 842 million.
As for the US stock market as a whole, it fell 0.2-0.3% as for now.
Dow Jones Industrial Average Index fell 0.19% to 20,051.91 points, Standard & Poor's 500 by this time dropped by 0.23% to 2287.88 points, and NASDAQ declined by 0.29% to 5657.62 points.
The negative impact on the market comes from a weakening of oil prices.
Meanwhile, the market value of Time Warner rose 0.5%. The media conglomerate received in the fourth quarter adjusted earnings of $ 1.25 per share, versus the average forecast of analysts polled by FactSet – at $ 1.19 per share.