LOS ANGELES – Walt Disney Co (DIS) Thursday reported a lower quarterly profit, weighed down by poor performance at its movie studio.
Net income fell to $379 million or 19 cents per share in the fourth quarter, including the effect of stock options expensing, from $516 million or 25 cents per share a year ago. Revenues rose to $7.734 billion from $7.543 billion a year earlier.
Excluding stock option expensing and an accounting change, earnings per share fell to 23 cents from 25 cents.
Analysts, on average, had expected revenue of $7.8 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
Shares of Disney fell 44 cents or 1.7 percent to $25.55 in the first few minutes of after-hours trade on Inet.
For its studio entertainment segment, Disney reported an operating loss of $313 million in the most recent quarter.
Chief Financial Officer Tom Staggs said in September that Disney's studio division would post a loss of up to $300 million due to a weak box office and higher marketing costs from a large slate of releases from its Miramax Film division.
During the quarter, Disney shares traded between $26.38 and $23.22. Disney stock traded Thursday at 18 times estimated 2006 earnings, compared with an average of 16 times earnings for the Dow Jones Industrial Average companies and 20 times earnings for Time Warner Inc (TWX), according to Reuters Estimates.
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