Walt Disney Co.’s third-quarter earnings made another double-digit jump, this time fully a 40% improvement, thanks to continued strength in television advertising, home-video sales and hefty theme-park growth, the entertainment giant reported Wednesday.
Burbank, Calif.-based Disney said net income was $1.13 billion, or 53 cents a share, on sales of $8.62 billion, for the three months ended July 1, compared with $811 million, or 39 cents, earned on sales of $7.72 billion reported in the third quarter of fiscal 2005.
Results in the latest quarter included a $30 million net benefit, or about 2 cents a share, from the completion of Disney’s acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios.
Analysts polled by Thomson First Call had expected the company to earn, on average, 44 cents a share on sales of $8.6 billion.
Studio entertainment revenue improved 17% to $1.7 billion, carried by the strong DVD performance of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” as well as lower distribution costs caused by fewer returns of unsold DVDs by retailers and reduced marketing costs.
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