Disney Shares on Wall Street’s Spring Hit Parade

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – While the Dow ended a five-week winning streak last week, shares of the Walt Disney Co. hit a 52-week high of $30.19 on Wednesday after the firm delivered a well-received quarterly financial report. Its stock closed Monday at $29.99, up nine cents on the day, and up 21.6% so far this year. "We believe the company should continue to experience better operating performance and momentum than many of the other large entertainment conglomerates," Prudential Equity Group analyst Katherine Styponias said.

· Analysts seemed in agreement that most impressive were the results in television, driven by high ratings at ABC and ESPN, and theme parks also performed well, despite a surge in gas prices that has some pundits predicting economic gloom. Revenues at Disney's media networks unit in its fiscal second quarter "were an eye-popping $3.55 billion, up 18% year-over-year and measurably ahead of our projection of $3.21 billion," Sanders Morris Harris analyst David Miller said.
· Miller was also bullish on Disney's plan to sell radio assets to Citadel Broadcasting, which will leave Disney with almost no distribution presence beyond 10 TV stations, "which are not stock-moving assets," he said. Selling to Citadel "has allowed Disney a higher multiple relative to its peers as all forms of distribution become marginalized over time," he said, raising his price target a dollar to $33.
· Analysts were so taken by Disney's earnings report that even the company's weaknesses – the movie studio and consumer products – were hailed successes because not much was expected from those units. Disney will benefit this year, said Goldman Sachs analyst Anthony Noto, from "the most optimistic film slate since 2003," singling out the DVD releases of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Chicken Little," as well as theatrical releases "Cars" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."