Disney Shares Surge as Strength in Parks, Streaming Lift Outlook

Walt Disney Co. reported fiscal second-quarter results that beat Wall Street estimates and raised its outlook for the full year, citing strong performances from theme parks and streaming TV. The shares jumped as much as 12% in New York.

Full-year 2025 earnings, excluding certain items, will rise 16% to $5.75 a share, Disney said Wednesday in a statement, about double its previous forecast for growth. Analysts were looking for $5.44 a share.

A number of major companies have pulled their 2025 guidance amid the uncertainty caused by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported goods. But Disney is benefiting from faster-than-expected growth at its namesake parks and streaming business, and pointed to that strong performance to boost its guidance.

“We remain optimistic about the direction of the company and our outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year,” Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger said in the statement. Still, the company said it will “continue to monitor macroeconomic developments” and recognizes that “uncertainty remains.”

Excluding some items, fiscal second-quarter earnings rose 20% to $1.45 a share, beating the $1.20 a share average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue in the period ended March 29 also came in higher than expectations, increasing 7% to $23.6 billion.

Disney’s experiences division, which includes its resorts and cruises, was buoyed by more visitors to parks in California and Florida, holiday package sales and a higher number of bookings resulting from the launch of the Disney Treasure ship in December. Guest spending at the parks also increased. Domestic strength overshadowed weakness abroad as resorts in Shanghai and Hong Kong saw lower attendance and increased costs, leading to a decrease in operating income at international parks and experiences.

Disney also announced on Wednesday plans for its first theme park in the Middle East, a sprawling resort property in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. It will be the company’s first all-new location since the Shanghai Disney Resort opened in 2016. The Burbank, California-based entertainment company had previously outlined a decade-long plan to turbocharge growth in its parks division — its most profitable business.

Iger, who is in the United Arab Emirates, said on a call with analysts that Disney has “more expansion projects underway domestically and around the world than at any time in our history. That includes investing more than $30 billion in our theme parks in Florida and California to enhance our offerings, create jobs and support the US economy.”

The company’s streaming business also showed strength in the second quarter, adding new subscribers even as it increased prices and helping the direct-to-consumer segment record its fourth-straight quarter of profit. Subscribers to Disney+ and Hulu increased 2.5 million from the previous quarter to 180.7 million. For the current third quarter, management said it expects to record a modest sequential increase in Disney+ subscribers.

Disney executives said they’ll give more details next week about the highly anticipated launch of a new streaming platform for ESPN, including pricing and the new name — which won’t be ESPN Flagship, as it’s been casually referred to for months.

Iger said subscribers to ESPN’s traditional cable channel will automatically get the new streaming version, giving consumers the option to watch both.

“The plan would be to basically be somewhat agnostic from a subscriber perspective, so that we can still do our best to preserve the multichannel ecosystem, but at the same time, we obviously want to grow our DTC business,” he said.

Bloomberg's Geetha Ranganathan reports.

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