Postive words about attendance and earnings

[raidermatt]

Some promising news for shareholders...

MarketWatch Article

 

[Sarangel]

Raidermatt -

For some reason (probably that CBS doesn't like to be linked to...) your link doesn't work, but I think this is the story you were trying to get:

Disney parks seen on the rebound
By Russ Britt, CBS.MarketWatch.com

NEW YORK -- Walt Disney Co.'s theme parks may be on the mend, a development that could herald bullish revisions in earnings forecasts on the company, an analyst said Wednesday.

Stuart Linde of Lehman Bros. said he's taking another look at his first-quarter estimate of 10 cents a share now after finding out that airline traffic and hotel occupancy in and around Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., is showing signs of improvement.

"We believe the improvement at the parks could more than offset weakness in broadcasting and studio segments," Linde wrote in a research memo.

Receipts at Disney World, the company's biggest amusement park, account for nearly 30 percent of Disney cash flow, making it the single largest contributor to company coffers, Linde says.

Linde said that a recovery in the region's hotel occupancy and air travel was running ahead of expectations.

Hotel volume, which was off 1.2 percent year-over-year in March, had been down 6.5 percent in February and off nearly 15 percent in January, according to Linde. Air traffic to Orlando was off 14 percent in February and 21 percent in December.

Disney spokesman John Dreyer said the park has shown signs of improvement. The company, however, does not offer attendance figures.

"Business was such during Easter that they had to close the parking lots," Dreyer said. "We have cautious optimism."

Shares of Disney closed up 98 cents to $24.05.

Disney is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on April 25.

Source: CBS Marketwatch.com

 

[larworth]

Receipts at Disney World, the company's biggest amusement park, account for nearly 30 percent of Disney cash flow, making it the single largest contributor to company coffers, Linde says

We don’t get much park vs. park results. Analysts sometimes get data the public doesn’t. Now, if I could just be sure what WDW is almost 30% of?

Can’t be revenue since the whole division only accounts for 27%. If income, than WDW is 75% of the division with DL, overseas royalties, and sports franchises the remaining 25%. This would mean WDW nets about 5X DL. Sound right?

 

[Sarangel]

As stupid as it sounds, these are all technical terms. Receipts are all cash collected at the parks, and Cash Flow is money moving around (coming in, paying bills, etc) as opposed to being invested (ala Fax Family Channel ). The problem with this quote is that it isn't very specific about the divisions, they may be rounding up the 27% for the whole division, since it says 'nearly.' or they may be using some other specification.

As for the math between parks, I'd bet it's pretty close. DL has very few hotel revenue streams & a park in the resort that's losing serious $$. WDW is about 5X larger than DL and has all those hotels generating revenue. Granted, it also has a park losing $$ (but AK may be pretty close to break even), but that's 1/5th of the resort as opposed to 1/2.

Sarangel

 

[larworth]

We got some clarification

Weiss said the resort, which accounts for about 30 percent of Disney's consolidated earnings before interest and taxes, this year had one of its strongest Easter holiday seasons ever

I figured it must be EBIT (not revenues or cash flow). Here's my quick and dirty breakdown. If anyone has better info. please fill in the blanks.

EBIT ($million)
WDW..............1175 (29% of company and 5x DL)
DL....................250
Royalties...........100 (DLP & OLC)
Sports/Misc.........75
Parks Div.........1600
Company.........4000

Interesting to see how 45 milllion reported attendees mostly with hopper passes compares to 20 million mostly off-site annual passholders. Not hard to understand why we hear more reports of peeling paint on one coast than the other.

 

[Bob O]

Any news that indicates increased earnings for the company is good!!!