Earnings Preview for Walt Disney (DIS)

Walt Disney is expected to announce its Q1 earnings results on Tuesday, May 10, after the markets close. Analysts are expecting earnings per share to reach $0.56, or an increase of 16.7% on the last year's level of $0.48. In the last 30 days, the Street's consensus for Walt Disney has fallen by $0.01. Revenues are projected to stand at $9.13 billion, or an increase of 6.4% on Q1 2010. The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries, is a diversified worldwide entertainment company. The company's operations include movie production and Disney-themed entertainment parks operating all over the world. Looking ahead, analysts expect both earnings per share and revenues to keep rising. In the upcoming quarter, revenues should reach $10.63 billion and earnings per share is expected to jump to $0.79, or a growth rate of 6.2% and 17.9% on Q2 2010. For the whole year, analysts expect revenues will be $41.09 billion, or 8% higher than in last year, while earnings per share should reach $2.65, or a rise of 28% compared to 2010. Investors will closely monitor Walt Disney's expansion into China, after Disney started works on the Shanghai Disney theme park. Located near China's financial center and its 20 million people, Chinese-themed Disneyland might seem to be a certain success. Investors will be anxious to see if Shanghai project will avoid the faith of Disney's Hong Kong theme park, however, which is still operating below Disney's expectations. Across the East China Sea, Japan is slowly recovering from tsunami and earthquake. As a part of this process of normalization of everyday life, Disney recently reopened its Tokyo theme park. Investors will be further encouraged by strong Q1 performance of Hulu, an internet video company partly owned by Disney, which is on track to double its revenue to $300 million this year. The majority of rating agencies currently have a Buy or Strong Buy on Disney. In the last 30 days, its shares added 2.43% to their value to close last week at $43.06. In today's trading, Disney added 0.27% to its value and is currently trading at $43.17.