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CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM: DISNEY AMUSEMENT PARKS POWER QUARTERLY PROFITS.


Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

The Walt Disney Noun 1. Walt Disney - United States film maker who pioneered animated cartoons and created such characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck; founded Disneyland (1901-1966)
Disney, Walter Elias Disney
 Co., underscoring the massive clout of its brand name, reported quarterly profits well above Wall Street forecasts due to a sterling performance by its theme parks.

The announcement came on the same day that the entertainment giant opened Animal Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Noun 1. Walt Disney World - a large amusement park established in 1971 to the southwest of Orlando
Orlando - a city in central Florida; site of Walt Disney World
 Resort in Florida, which was so jammed that the parking lot was shut down briefly and ticket sales were suspended for an hour. Late in the day, a federal investigation cleared Disney in the deaths of a dozen exotic animals at the park, one of the few clouds on Disney's horizon.

After the stock market closed, Disney reported earnings of $384 million, or 55 cents a diluted share, for its second quarter ended March 31, up 22 percent from $316 million in the year-ago period with results adjusted to reflect asset sales. Revenues for Burbank-based Disney edged up to $5.24 billion from $5.22 billion.

The profits were 3 cents ahead of analysts' consensus estimate, resulting in shares rocketing ahead by 5-1/4 to 122 in after-hours trading after-hours trading

The trading of securities after the exchanges are closed. After-hours trading often refers to trading a listed security in the over-the-counter market after the exchanges have been closed for the day.
. ``It looks as if people really like the report,'' observed analyst Brian Eisenbarth of San Francisco-based Collins & Co.

Profits from resorts and theme parks, which have been targeted for aggressive expansion, rose 15 percent to $271 million. Chairman Michael Eisner Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) was CEO of The Walt Disney Company from September 22, 1984 to September 30, 2005. Early life
Michael Eisner was born to a wealthy family in Mt. Kisco, New York, and raised on Park Avenue in Manhattan.
 noted that the gain came despite start-up costs for Animal Kingdom and a cruise line A cruise line is a company that operates cruise ships. Cruise lines have a dual character; they are partly in the transportation business, and partly in the leisure entertainment business, a duality that carries down into the ships themselves, which have both a crew headed by the  which is due to launch in July.

``There's no question that the results are a terrific endorsement of Disney's growth strategy,'' said analyst Jill Krutick of Salomon Smith Barney Smith Barney is a division of Citigroup Global Capital Markets Inc., a global, full-service financial firm, that provides brokerage, investment banking and asset management services to corporations, governments and individuals around the world. . ``Even though they were facing tough comparisons from a year ago, customer spending continues to be very strong.''

Disney also announced Wednesday plans for a 1,300-room hotel near Animal Kingdom and a roller coaster What a bad CD-R disc is often called. See CD-R and underrun.  at the nearby Disney-MGM Studios Disney-MGM Studios is a theme park at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA. The third park to open at the resort, it debuted on May 1, 1989. Spanning 135 acres (546,000 m²) in size, the park's theme is show business, drawing inspiration from the heyday of . It has started construction on a new California Adventure theme park next to Disneyland in Anaheim and is considering placing one of its DisneyQuest interactive attractions near that site.

``These expansions will be a key driver for Disney,'' Krutick said. ``They still have a very small piece of the pie in the travel market.''

Disney's creative content division fell 4 percent to $339 million due to lousy results from ``Kundun,'' ``Krippendorf's Tribe'' and ``Deep Rising.'' Help came from the Disney Store chain, Miramax's ``Good Will Hunting,'' and the home video releases of ``Hercules,'' ``Peter Pan'' and ``The Little Mermaid little mermaid

the sacrifices her own life to save her beloved prince. [Dan. Lit.: Andersen’s Fairy Tales]

See : Self-Sacrifice
.''

Broadcasting edged up $1 million to $239 million, with ABC's lagging Lagging

Strategy used by a firm to stall payments, normally in response to exchange rate projections.
 ratings in the face of CBS' Winter Olympics coverage offset by growth at ESPN ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network .

Disney also announced a 3-for-1 stock split and said it expected the move to take place in July. Disney's last stock split was a 4-for-1 split in 1992. It also authorized a buyback of 133.3 million of its 680 million outstanding shares, in line with previous authorizations.

OTHER REPORTS

Here are the financial statements of local companies and a handful of major U.S. companies that reported quarterly earnings Wednesday:

MiniMed Inc.

Sylmar-based maker of infusion systems, primarily for management of diabetes

April 1st Qtr. 1998x 1997x

Sales $26.4 million $19.2 million

Net income $2.3 million $1.03 million

Net per share 17 cents 8 cents

xFirst-quarter 1998 ended April 3, compared with March 28 last year. The company attributed the more than double earnings increase to strong demand for its external insulin pump insulin pump
n.
A portable device for people with diabetes that injects insulin at programmed intervals in order to regulate blood sugar levels.
 and disposable product Disposable products are items that are not intended by the manufacturer to be reused more than once or a few times as compared to more permanent serviceable and reusable items. Some products that have disposable versions are:
  • diapers
  • cigarette lighters
  • flatware
 lines. In addition, some recent acquisitions are also contributing to the company's sales growth.

Cherokee Inc.

Van Nuys-based licenser of apparel, fashion accessories Fashion accessories are items apart from the garment itself, which complement the whole outfit. Fashion accessories include jewelry, gloves, handbags, hats, or scarves.  and other products

Year-endx 1998 1997

Sales $8.6 million $4.7 million

Net income $5.7 million $3.4 million

Net per share 68 cents 42 cents

x1998 figures are for the eight months ended Jan. 31; the company's fiscal year now runs from February through the Saturday closest to the end of January. Also, 1997 revenues do not take into account $366,000 in product sales; company revenues will be based only on licensing.

Power-One Inc.

Camarillo-based maker of power supplies for electronic equipment manufacturers

March 1st Qtr. 1998x 1997x

Sales $26.4 million $17.6 million

Net income $3.1 million $997,000

Net per share 18 cents 6 cents

xFirst-quarter 1998 ended March 29, compared with March 30 last year. The company said it has focused its sales efforts this year on market segments that have higher margins, are less cyclical and less vulnerable to international fluctuations in demand.

Hawker Pacific Aerospace Hawker Pacific Aerospace is a multinational aircraft parts and repair company based in the United States, and the United Kingdom. The company is a descendant of the Hawker Siddeley Company. It was formed in 1980 within British Aerospace, and merged with Dunlop Aviation Inc. in 1994.  

Sun Valley-based provider of aircraft landing gear maintenance services

March 1st Qtr. 1998 1997

Sales $13.7 million $9.8 million

Net income $428,000 $195,000

Net per share 8 cents 3 cents

The company attributed the improvement in part to internal growth in business and revenues generated by the landing gear repair operations in the United Kingdom that it recently acquired from British Airways British Airways
 in full British Airways PLC

International passenger airline based in London. In 1936 British Airways Ltd. was founded through the merger of three smaller airlines.
.

Anheuser-Busch Cos.

St. Louis-based brewer and theme-park operator

March 1st Qtr. 1998 1997

Sales $2.95 billion $2.86 billion

Net income $265 million $258 million

Net per share 54 cents 51 cents

Boeing Co.

Seattle-based commercial airplane maker

March 1st Qtr. 1998 1997

Sales $12.9 billion $10.4 billion

Net income $50 million $540 million

Net per share 5 cents 55 cents

Boeing experienced production problems with its 737 jetliners; earnings were reduced by a $219 million after-tax charge for the program.

Hilton Hotels
For the company involved in the buy out please see Hilton Hotels Corporation. This hotel chain is not the company being acquired.
The Hilton brand was re-united internationally after more than 40 years in February 2006, when United States-based Hilton
 Corp.

Beverly Hills-based hotel and gaming company

March 1st Qtr. 1998 1997

Salesx $1.4 billion $1.3 billion

Net income $77 million $68 million

Net per share 29 cents 26 cents

Sales include revenues from hotels and gaming.

Microsoft Corp.

Seattle-based computer software company

March 3rd Qtr. 1998 1997

Sales $3.8 billion $3.2 billion

Net income $1.3 billion $1.04 billion

Net per share 50 cents 40 cents

The world's largest personal computer software company beat analysts' expectations but warned that earnings growth was slowing because of financial woes in Asia.

Pacific Enterprises

Los Angeles-based natural-gas distributor and parent company of Southern California Gas This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article.  Co.

March 1st Qtr. 1998 1997

Sales $678 million $803 million

Net income $40 million $50 million

Net per share 47 cents59 cents

UAL UAL United Airlines (ICAO code)
UAL Unified Accelerator Library (Brookhaven National Laboratory)
UAL User Account Lockdown
UAL User Access Layer
UAL Universal Auxiliary Language
UAL User Agent Layer
 Corp.

Chicago-based holding company whose primary subsidiary is United Airlines

March 1st Qtr.1998 1997

Sales $4.05 billion $4.12 billion

Net income $218 million $215 million

Net per share $1.68 $1.61

U.S. Airways airways Anatomy The 'pipes'–trachea, bronchi, bronchioles–through which air passes to and from the alveoli. See Small airways.  Group

Arlington, Va.-based airline operator

March 1st Qtr. 1998 1997

Sales $2.06 billion $2.1 billion

Net incomex $98.3 million $152.7 million

Net per share 96 cents $1.45

The company's first-quarter net income reflects a 40 percent corporate income tax rate, compared with an 8 percent rate in the same period a year ago.

Xerox Corp.

Stamford, Conn.-based document processing Processing text documents, which includes indexing methods for text retrieval based on content. See document imaging.  product and service company

March 1st Qtr.1998 1997

Sales $4.3 billion $4.02 billion

Net income $111 million $270 million

Net per share 32 cents 75 cents

The company took a $190 million after-tax charge in connection with its discontinued financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.
Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page.
 operations.

CAPTION(S):

2 Boxes

BOX: (1) OTHER REPORTS (See text)

(2) Disney shares shot up 5 1/4 to 122 in after-hours trading.
COPYRIGHT 1998 Daily News
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 1998, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Title Annotation:Business
Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Geographic Code:1USA
Date:Apr 23, 1998
Words:1208
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