Wall Street Anticipates Disney Q2 Report

New York, NY (AHN) - Investors eagerly await the second quarter financial report of entertainment giant Walt Disney Co. due at the market's closing on Tuesday. Industry experts are said to be looking at Disney's theme parks as a sort of "recession-gauge."

"Disney's theme park division remains investors' No. 1 concern, yet all signs point to Disney's fiscal second-quarter [ending in March] being quite strong, with theme parks likely to upside surprise," a Dow Jones report quoted Pali Researcher Richard Greenfield.

Smartmoney.com reported that Factset Research has forecast profits for the second largest U.S. Media outfit to come in at "$0.51 cents a share on sales of $8.51 billion, compared with the $0.43 cents a share on sales of $8.07 billion" posted in 2007. Bloomberg's pool of nine analysts' also averaged projections of $0.51 cents a share.

Besides Disney's Theme Park investments, economists are optimistic that the entertainment company may be able to float on spillover earnings from successful box office releases such as "National Treasure II," "Hanna Montana" and international DVD sales from "Enchanted."

Disney's collection of cable networks - ESPN, The Disney Channel, ABC Family and others - saw more viewers during the recent Hollywood writers' strike, drawing on its strength of reality programs.