Walt Disney Company posted a 17.8% increase in quarterly earnings and better-than-expected revenue, boosted by an improving ad climate and strength in the media giant's cable operations.
Shares of Disney - which earlier announced its finance chief, Tom Staggs, and the head of its parks division, Jay Rasulo, will soon swap jobs - rose 4.3% to USD 30.3 after closing at USD 29.05 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.
Net income in the fiscal fourth quarter, ended October 3, was USD 895 million, or 47 cents per share, compared with USD 760 million, or 40 cents a share, in the year-ago fourth quarter. Fourth-quarter revenue rose 4.5% to USD 9.867 billion from USD 9.445 billion a year ago and beat the USD 9.28 billion expected on average by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
