LOS ANGELES - Walt Disney Co forecast rising ad sales, pricing and theme park attendance, sending its shares higher after it posted a rare quarterly earnings miss that contrasted sharply with strong performances by its peers in the media sector.
The entertainment conglomerate's stock climbed 2.1 percent after hours on the rosier outlook. The shares ended down 3 percent on Thursday after Disney inadvertently released its disappointing fourth quarter results before the market closed, spooking some investors. It is investigating the matter.
The company, nevertheless, sounded a positive note with analysts.
"The current trends in our business are encouraging. We're also optimistic about our creative pipeline. Thus, we believe we are well positioned to deliver strong results in 2011," said Disney Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo on a conference call with analysts.
Disney said ad sales in the current first quarter were pacing up double-digit percentages at both ESPN and TV stations, reflecting a stabilizing economy. It also said U.S. hotel reservations were up 5 percent in the current quarter from a year-ago.
But Wall Street had expected better fourth quarter numbers from a company that has exceeded earnings expectations in each of the past six quarters. Disney's shares have been up about 15 percent this year amid perceptions an advertising recovery was taking hold, outperforming the share performances of both Time Warner Inc and News Corp, which recently posted strong profits on the advertising rebound.
"Generally, the forward trends look good and they're entering into the sweet spot of the content and consumer product cycle. Advertising trends also look strong," said David Bank, analyst with RBC Capital Markets, noting the fourth quarter was "messy" due to a calendar shift, writedowns and other items.
Weak fiscal fourth-quarter revenue at Disney's media networks division -- its largest -- offset a boost from smash "Toy Story 3" in its studio unit and robust advertising sales.
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