Disney's Q4: Bob Iger beats Wall Street, but he needs a better plan for the studio

While per-share profit increased 5% in Q4, it decreased 20% for the full fiscal year. Free cash flow went down 14% over the last twelve months. And revenues for the year declined 4%.

Granted, when you look at Q4 versus the full year, you get the feeling that the situation at Disney is about to change for the better. As an example, free cash flow powered higher in the quarter. Plus, the comparisons between the quarterly income generated by the individual segments with their full-year profits offer reasons to be hopeful.

However, I'm not 100% convinced Disney is fully out of the woods. While media networks seem to be holding up okay, other segments aren't having an easy time of it. I have to come back to the mess that CEO Bob Iger calls a studio division. Disney's movie business lost money in the quarter and experienced a better than 80% decline in full-year income. The problems at the studio are well known, but that doesn't make me any less angry over them. There's no need for that kind of performance, and while Iger has made some changes in leadership as I mentioned previously, I'd love to ask him why he let things get as bad as they did. If I ever did get the chance to pose this query, I'm sure he would switch over to his CEO-robot voice and give me a pre-programmed, antiseptic response.

And then we have this odd bit of news. CFO Tom Staggs will be switching positions with the head of parks and resorts. As this piece at the Los Angeles Times reports, the move apparently is to help Staggs increase his portfolio of company experience so that he can be more upwardly mobile within the organization. Yeah, I get why Iger is doing this, but considering that Disney is trying to position itself for future growth during a very difficult time period, I myself wouldn't be catering to execs who want to grow professionally. I think I'd be more concerned about growing shareholder value (as well as the annual dividend), but that's just me.

At the time of this writing, shares of the company were up over 3%, breaking through the $30 level. Hey, for those who did an earnings trade with Disney, congratulations. As for me, I'll be interested in seeing how Q1 develops. I want more proof that the worst is behind the Mouse. Furthermore, I want additional information on the studio division. The Marvel (MVL) buy certainly will help, but long-term shareholders may need more than superheroes to get the stock finally back on track.

Disclosure: I own Disney, GE; positions can change without notice.