The Magic Kingdom of the Disney Company

The Disney team will be doing some heavy celebrating over the course of the next few weeks, as not only will they enjoy the benefits from the release of Toy Story 3 but at the turn of this year's 3rd financial quarter, they also saw their earnings per share rise sharply.

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) reported on Tuesday 10th August that diluted earnings per share had successfully increased by 31%, with a rise from 51 cents per share to 67 cents. Disney’s current president and chief executive office Robert A. Iger said in an official statement, ‘we're very pleased with our strong third quarter, in which we grew revenues substantially and improved profitability across the majority of our businesses.’ He also went on to say, ‘our performance underscores the value of sticking to a smart strategy even in tough times, of investing in the right people, and of focusing relentlessly on quality and innovation to drive growth in shareholder value.’

The company also said that their EPS for the nine-month period that ended on July 3rd also increased 24 percent to 1.60 per share from 1.29 from last year.

As Disney continues to mount the walls of the stock exchange, financial analysts marvel at other rising entertainment companies that could also benefit from such generous fortunes. One such company is Pixar, which Disney in fact bought in 2006.

Many believe the success of Pixar has something to do with former CEO Steve Jobs, who is also the head of Apple (AAPL). Pixar’s achievements include Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E and the academy award-winning Up.

Out of this bunch of leading entertainment companies, Dreamworks (DWA) has seen some great financial figures in past years with animated films such as Shrek, Monsters v. Aliens, and How to Train your Dragon. Some analysts are suggesting that flooding the market with 3-D films at a ticket price higher than a standard film has caused demand to drop subsequently, putting a damper on the company's earnings. Lew Coleman who is currently the CFO of Dreamworks commented on the lack of recent success of Shrek Forever After in some areas by saying, ‘I think you have to make a compelling case to have a 3D movie in 3D, like Avatar and Dragon. I don’t think we made that case for Shrek. If we had to do it all over again, we would probably do some things slightly different.’

Fortunately, there are plenty of other stocks in the entertainment field worth aiming your movie camera at, including several with decent dividends, which have been turned up by WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. The list can be downloaded, sorted, and changed.

Author owns DIS, AAPL, and DWA.

By Stockerblog.com

Movie Admission Hits $20

Unbelievable, in this recession, that people are still attending movies like crazy, and are willing to pay up for the privilege. (A reverse barometer to the economy?). I understand that during the Depression, attending motion pictures became a very popular outing, since it was relatively inexpensive, you could walk to the theater, so no travel expenses, and it took people's minds off the economic situation.

Now theater prices have hit $20, primarily in New York City, for the Shrek Forever After movie, created by DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (DWA).

Author owns DWA.

Angelina Jolie Year End Stock Index Update

Angelina Jolie Outperforms the Stock Market

Lots of negative press may appear in the tabloids about Angelina Jolie, but you can't keep a great actress down. Her stock index, which is made up of the stocks of companies that distribute her motion pictures, has significantly outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average this year. The stocks in her index include the following.

Components of the Angelina Jolie Stock Index:
Sony SNE - Girl, Interrupted
Viacom VIA-B - Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life; Beowulf
Time Warner TWX - George Wallace; Taking Lives; Alexander
News Corp. NWS-A - Mr. & Mrs. Smith; Life or Something Like It
General Electric GE - [Universal Pictures] The Bone Collector; The Good Shepherd; The Changeling
Disney DIS - Playing by Heart; Gone in 60 Seconds
Comcast CMCSA - Original Sin
DreamWorks Animation DWA - Shark Tale

Assumptions:
This is a price-weighted index, similar to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It includes dividends.

Returns:
From January through today (12/28/09), the Angelina Jolie Index is up 22%, outperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average which is up 16%.

If you like celebrity stock indexes, you should check out the Heidi Klum Stock Index, the Eva Longoria Stock Index, the Jessica Alba Stock Index, the Nicole Kidman Stock Index, the Freida Pinto Stock Index, and the Taylor Swift Stock Index.

Author owns TWX, DIS, and DWA.

By Fred Fuld for Stockerblog.com.