We wouldn’t mind having an extra $413M lying around, and we’d notice it too. And so did Walt Disney, although it represented only a 4% gain toward total revenues of $11.088B for its fiscal Q3. But it worked out to a 31% increase in earnings per share to $1.01.
“We had a phenomenal third quarter, delivering the largest quarterly earnings in the history of our company,” said Robert A. Iger, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. “Earnings per share were up 31% over last year, driven by growth in every one of our businesses. We also delivered record earnings per share for the first nine months of our fiscal year, and we believe our results clearly demonstrate Disney’s unique value proposition and great potential to deliver long-term growth.”
Segment operating income was up 18% to $3.236B and free cash flow was up 94% to $2.145B.
Parks and resorts were a big driver of revenue gains, improving 9% to $3.441B. Media Networks was slightly below the company’s par but remained its biggest category by volume, gaining 3% to $5.084B.
Breaking Media down, both the cable and broadcast side registered 3% revenue gains, with cable rising to $3.61B and broadcast to $1.474B.
The broadcast side is gaining steam on the basis of higher affiliation fees andlower program and production costs; however, advertising revenues were also lower.
