Disney earnings cheer; Nordstrom does not

Walt Disney (DIS)  made investors happy this afternoon with actual revenue growth and actual earnings growth for its fiscal fourth quarter.

And you can thank the bullish performance of its ESPN sports networks and syndication sales of "Desperate Housewives," "According to Jim" and "Grey's Anatomy." 

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Disney shares were higher after hours. At 6 p.m. ET, the shares were trading at $29.65, up 2.1%, from a regular close of $29.05.

Disney was one of several companies that reported after today's close. Nordstrom (JWN) boosted its guidance for the fourth quarter. But shares fell more than 5% after hours.

The recession is still bothering a number of Disney businesses, including its theme parks and resort operations and retail business.

Disney earned $895 million, or 46 cents a share, after one-time items are stripped away, on revenue of $9.87 billion. That was up from $760 million, or 41 cents a share, on revenue of $9.45 billion a year ago.

Wall Street had expected 41 cents a share in earnings and revenue of $9.27 billion.

Operating income at Disney's cable networks grew 19%, primarily due to higher affiliate revenue at ESPN and growth at the worldwide Disney Channels.

Media networks, which include Disney's cable businesses and its ABC broadcasting network, had an operating profit of $1.49 billion, up 26% from a year ago. Revenue was up 14% to $4.73 billion.

In its parks division, operating income fell 17%, but that was less than analysts had expected amid concerns about the pullback in consumer spending.

Fourth-quarter bookings are down 5% from a year ago.

If Disney has a problem, it's the movie business.

The movie business reported a loss of $13 million, down from a profit of $98 million a year ago, despite a 3% increase in revenue to $1.495 billion. 

The company took unspecified write-downs on film's like "Disney's A Christmas Carol." The film cost more than $175 million to make and generated just $31 million in ticket sales on its first weekend. Reviews were weak.

Disney has been reorganizing the business and putting new executives in charge.

Disney also stepped up an overhaul of its management by announcing that two top executives, its finance chief and the head of its parks division, will swap jobs at the end of this year.

Chief Financial Officer Tom Staggs has served in his current job for more than a decade, presiding over acquisitions of Capital Cities/ABC, Pixar and the pending purchase of Marvel Entertainment. Jay Rasulo assumed the role of parks chairman in 2000.

Nordstrom forecast bothers investors

Nordstrom, meanwhile, forecast a drop in full-year same-store sales and posted a quarterly profit slightly below Wall Street expectations.

That raised doubts about Nordstrom's holiday-season performance and sent its shares down more than 4%.

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The upscale retailer raised its full-year earnings forecast, but analysts questioned whether it could meet the earnings numbers after it said it expects same-store sales to be down 6% to 7% for its fiscal 2009.

Nordstrom earned $83 million, or 38 cents a share in the third quarter ended Oct. 31, up from $71 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 3.5% to $1.87 billion.

But same-store sales were down 1.2%.

The consensus Wall Street estimate was for earnings of 39 cents a share and sales of $1.78 billion in the quarter,

Nordstrom expects earnings between $1.83 and $1.88 a share for the 2009 fiscal year ending on Jan. 30, an increase from an earlier view of $1.50 to $1.65 a share.

Toon van Beeck, senior industry analyst at IBISWorld, said Nordstrom's results were positive, but called the same-store sales decline expected for the full year "quite steep."