The earnings season has been going pretty good so far, and Walt Disney (DIS) will get its chance to impress Wall Street this afternoon when it reports its fiscal first quarter results after the market closes.

Going into this afternoon's report, analysts are expecting to see the company report earnings of $0.56 per share, up from $0.47 during the same period last year.

Continue reading Disney Expected to Post Strong Q1 Results

Disney Expected to Post Strong Q1 Results originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player, LeBron James, was a stock, would you find it was of any value as an investment? From my perspective, it would not be, unless Mr. James were to make some key moves off the court to mirror his talent on the court. The first thing I would tell him is to SHUT UP!

He needs to recognize that it is only natural for people in Cleveland to feel betrayed after years of support and adulation ended in a sputter, with nothing to fill the void. It is only natural for them to feel even worse after the self-serving arrogant way they were informed during a totally over-the-top television special.

Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Would You Invest in LeBron James?

Sunday Funnies: Would You Invest in LeBron James? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 17 Oct 2010 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading JockStocks: The Big Winner in Tonight's NFL Draft? ESPN and the NFL Network

JockStocks: The Big Winner in Tonight's NFL Draft? ESPN and the NFL Network originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I found an interesting article stating that ABC affiliates are rather upset that they are losing sports to ESPN. To set up the situation, ESPN is allowed to choose sports from ABC to air because ESPN took control of ABC sports back in 2006. Recently, it was announced that ESPN will take eight NASCAR races off ABC to run on ESPN, the Rose Bowl starting in 2011, and the British Open (golf tournament) starting this year.

The loss of the NASCAR races will have a significant impact in the southern U.S., as the sport's popularity will pull viewers away from the local ABC affiliate to ESPN. This move will cost the ABC affiliates significant ad revenue as some Lifetime-style movie or infomercials will take the place of the departed races.

Continue reading JockStocks: ESPN Stealing Programming from Local Affiliates?

JockStocks: ESPN Stealing Programming from Local Affiliates? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While official ratings numbers from Thursday's national championship game between the Texas Longhorn and Alabama Crimson Tide football teams have yet to be released, I have a bad feeling that they will not be as good as ESPN hopes. Raise your hand if you tuned out after the Crimson Tide rolled to a 24-6 first-half lead and Texas was struggling with a freshman back-up quarterback at the helm. I would have my hand up right now, but it is awfully tough to type with one hand.

While the game promised to be good at the start, and actually had a relatively decent ending (from what I hear, unless you think this was the highlight of the night), I have a feeling that we will find out that the ratings for this game were lower than past couple of years. I know that I checked in on the game first thing this morning, only to find out that the finish was a bit closer than I expected, but I went to bed last night not worried that I was missing the last half of the BCS (or is it BS?) championship game.

Continue reading JockStocks: The Real Loser in the BCS National Championship Game May Be the Networks

JockStocks: The Real Loser in the BCS National Championship Game May Be the Networks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

You know, it figures that this would be the year that I give up my Bengals season tickets. I suffered through three years of horrid football and decided that I was not going to renew my tickets for financial reasons or as a protest against the team's (mis)management in the past 19 years.

That said, one reason that did not attribute to my giving up the tickets was the NFL's new tailgating rules. In an article Darren Rovell put on Twitter this morning (featured in USAToday), a New York Jets fan says that the tailgating rules (that limit tailgating to 3.5 hours before kickoff) may be the "final nail" that forces him to give up his season tickets. The new tailgating rules are supposed to help "crack down on drunken and disruptive fans" by limiting the time fans can tailgate.

Continue reading JockStocks: Tailgating policies won't affect 'real' fans

JockStocks: Tailgating policies won't affect 'real' fans originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Since its start in 1979, ESPN has grown at a rapid clip -- turning into the most powerful brand in sports media. With close to 100 million subscribers, the company has a variety of channels (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, and so on), a magazine, stores, a radio channel, restaurants, books, and websites. If considered a standalone company -- it is now 80% owned by Disney (NYSE: DIS) -- it would probably have a valuation above $20 billion.

Despite all the success, the ESPN story has had little coverage, unlike many of the other great companies of the past generation such as Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).

Continue reading Entrepreneur's Journal: Learn from the mega success of ESPN

Entrepreneur's Journal: Learn from the mega success of ESPN originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading JockStocks: How to fix ESPN

JockStocks: How to fix ESPN originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This afternoon,the Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) is going to be reporting its fiscal third quarter earnings.

Analysts are expecting to see the company hit hard by the current recession, with all segments of the company's business have felt the impact.

Continue reading Disney's third-quarter earnings expected to decline

Disney's third-quarter earnings expected to decline originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's all over the news. Media conglomerate Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube have entered into a deal for the former to supply content to the latter. Not for free, of course. There will be an ad-revenue-sharing model in place. The transaction calls for short-form content at first. This will be derived from ABC and ESPN properties. I assume that, if the short-form stuff works, then long-form stuff will follow pretty soon.

According to Julia Boorstin at CNBC, Disney will have full authority over the ad sales. That's good for shareholders of Disney. But YouTube wins a lot here, too. Google paid quite a bit of money to acquire the platform, and so far, monetization of the user-generated model has not been going smoothly.

YouTube needs to sign deals like these to legitimize its presence. It doesn't want to be known simply as the Cyberland of Copyright Infringement, a wicked, evil digital kingdom where content is stolen, used, and abused. That's how Viacom (NYSE: VIA) sees the site. It has engaged litigation against the company.

Continue reading YouTube traps the Mouse -- who benefits the most?

YouTube traps the Mouse -- who benefits the most? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Disney (NYSE: DIS) will be reporting earnings for the fiscal first quarter Tuesday after the market close. There shouldn't be any growth in the bottom line. Of course, no one should be surprised by that. After all, this is Disney we're talking about, a company which provides goods and services that can easily be cut out of any consumer budget. Remember, conservation of cash is becoming quite the fad.

According to this source, Disney may earn $0.52 per share.That would represent a contraction of $0.11, or 17%. The big question is whether or not Disney will miss. If it does, investors won't be happy, because it'll be the second miss in a row. Wall Street was previously accustomed to seeing the Mouse religiously beat the analysts at their holy game. But Q4 changed the story.

Continue reading Earnings preview: Will Disney deliver the magic?

Earnings preview: Will Disney deliver the magic? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Kansas City Star reports that the Arena Football League will cancel its 2009 season. Pete Likens, the director of communications for the Kansas City Brigade, told the newspaper that the players union agreed to the move last night and the owners will hold a final vote later today: "It's pretty much a done deal to suspend the 2009 season and work toward a single entity-league. We plan to start up again in 2010."

In 2006, the league sold a stake to ESPN and hoped that the increased television time would put it on solid financial footing, but clearly that didn't happen. The AFL had reportedly been working on a deal to sell a 40% stake to a private equity firm back in October in exchange for $100 million, but that didn't happen. The league has been without a commissioner since July.

The league has apparently decided that its survival will depend on a transition to a single-entity ownership structure, where a small group of investors own the league as a whole. Currently, the league is operated similar to the way the NFL is, with individual franchisees owning each team.

Bored NFL fans will now have to find something more productive to do with their summers.

Arena Football League set to suspend operations originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) beat estimates but shares fell to a new 52-week low.
• Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) posted better-than-expected Q2 results and listed its guidance.
• CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) issued a lackluster Q2 earnings report and will buy back shares.
• Concur Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: CNQR) Q3 revenues spiked, and it announced a big deal.
• Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) swung to a Q2 profit due to a tax refund, but revenue growth was minimal.
• Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) narrowed its loss in Q1 as revenue more than doubled.
• First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) easily beat analysts' expectations and raised its guidance.
• General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) posted a bigger-than-expected Q2 loss on massive charges.
• Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) posted solid Q2 results on price increases, and raised its guidance.
• Lazard Ltd. (NYSE: LAZ) reported healthy Q2 results on merger and restructuring deals.
• Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MER) warned of a $5.7 billion write-down in the third quarter.
• Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) posted breakeven earnings while revenue fell but beat estimates.
• Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP) reported a Q2 loss due to slower sales, sending shares lower.
• Siemens (NYSE: SI) said that Q3 earnings fell from a one-time gain last year.
• Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) Q1 profits tumbled on lower handset and flat-panel TV sales.
• Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) forecast a loss in this quarter due to weakness in the financial sector.
• Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) had better-than-expected Q2 results on growth in wireless.
• Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) reported strong Q3 results that easily beat Wall Street expectations.
• Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) posted better-than-expected Q2 profit on theme park and ESPN strength.

For more highlights from this week, see: Exxon, Starbucks, Viacom, Comcast, Sirius, Kraft and others

Upcoming quarterly reports include Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Jack-in-the-Box (NYSE: JBX), Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI), Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE), and Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

Earnings highlights: General Motors, Motorola, Disney, Sony, Visa, CBS and others originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Media Networks revenue for the quarter increased 8% to $4.1 billion and segment operating income increased 9% to $1.5 billion helped by growth at ESPN and the Disney Chanel.
  
• Parks and Resorts revenue increased 5% to $3.0 billion and segment operating income increased 3% to $641 million amid higher ticket prices and guest spending at Walt Disney World.
• Studio entertainment and consumer products showed declines amid lower box office receipts and the disappointing performance of "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian."

Disney defies skeptics originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Lessons for investors in the woes of the New York Yankees and Mets

Lessons for investors in the woes of the New York Yankees and Mets originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 28 May 2008 17:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Disney beats Wall Street estimates easily originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Shares of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), along with the other media conglomerates, have been pummeled this year amid concerns about slowing advertising sales and the Hollywood writers' strike. Though the declines are understandable for other companies, such as Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), they are overblown in the case of the house built by Mickey.

For one thing, the weak dollar makes Disney's resorts, particularly Florida's Walt Disney World, attractive for visitors from overseas. About 2.7 million of the 45.1 million in visitors to the Orlando area -- where Disney World is based -- come from overseas. About 53% of them came from Western Europe and 26% came from Canada, according to the Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau. It would stand to reason that some of the drop off in domestic visitors could be made up from people from outside the U.S.

Continue reading Wish upon a star for Disney's earnings?

Wish upon a star for Disney's earnings? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Weather Channel, held by family-owned Landmark Communications of Virginia, is being auctioned off along with the rest of Landmark, and could fetch $5 billion. A number of public companies may have an interest. According to The New York Times, firms looking at the property include Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and General Electric (NYSE: GE).

The Weather Channel is attractive for two reasons. The first is that there are very few large, independent cable networks. Most, including CNN, CNBC, ESPN, and MTV, are already owned by media giants. The chance to pick up another large advertising-supported 24-hour product should be very attractive.

The second tremendous selling point is that weather.com, the online arm of the company, is one of the most-visited sites in the U.S. In November, comScore ranked it as the 16th most-visited website, with 34.1 million unique visitors. That puts it ahead of ESPN.com, CBS.com, and the Viacom (NYSE: VIA) digital properties.

The Weather Channel is a rare prize. The bidding should be spirited.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

The Weather Channel for sale, only $5 billion originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With the newspaper industry in decline and big layoffs at a lot of big newspapers, this is a tough time to be a journalist. But someone forgot to tell that to the elite sportswriters who, according to The New York Times, are receiving offers of double or triple what they earned at newspapers to write for Yahoo! Sports (NASDAQ: YHOO) and ESPN. Even Sports Illustrated lost star columnist Rick Reilly to ESPN -- for a reported $3 million per year.

The Times quotes sports agent Leigh Steinberg: "It's the exact same model as what happened to athletes. We're seeing free agency for sports journalists."

In spite of all the complaining and gnashing of teeth about the decline of journalism, I would argue that the internet is the best thing that has happened to the industry in a long time. The rise of aggregators and syndication has probably created a decline in the number of reporter jobs available -- but less duplication of efforts is good.

Continue reading Sportswriters in demand as Yahoo, ESPN poach from print media

Sportswriters in demand as Yahoo, ESPN poach from print media originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 24 Dec 2007 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of our Money Face-Offs feature. Let us know who you think comes out ahead in this head-to-head match-up, and check out our other Money Face-Off posts.

Celebrities -- they're more than superior human beings, they're money-making machines. If these celebrities were stocks, which would be the shrewd buy?

Tiger Woods, unarguably the world's greatest golfer, or David Beckham, the world's best-know soccer player -- in which would you invest?

The industry that is Tiger has shown consistent growth in earnings, with PGA winnings in his first 13 years as a pro exceeding $70 million. His presence in a golf tournament boosts television ratings by 50% or more. He almost single-handedly established Nike in the golf equipment world. He holds the #5 place in Forbes' Celebrity 100 and was #2 in press clippings in 2005. Nike (NYSE: NKE), Buick (NYSE: GM), American Express (NYSE: AXP), Accenture, Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) and Tag Heuer are among the companies that shovel buckets of cash his way in return for his endorsement.

David Beckham is no slouch in the cash category, either. The Times estimates the soccer star brings in a cool $40+ million for endorsements, including Adidas, ESPN, and Motorola (NYSE: MOT). Even in soccer-lite America, he has 51.9% recognition, more than twice that of NBA MVP Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs.

Continue reading Money Face-Off: Tiger Woods vs. David Beckham

Money Face-Off: Tiger Woods vs. David Beckham originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.