• Most Popular
  • Most Shared

Marvel profit tops Street

Tue May 5, 2009 7:57am EDT

Stocks

   

(Reuters) - Marvel Entertainment Inc's (MVL.N) quarterly profit topped market estimates on strength at its licensing segment and continued demand for the home video versions of "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk," its first self-produced films released last year.

The media company -- whose businesses include publishing, licensing and movies -- raised its 2009 sales outlook, as well as the lower end of its earnings outlook for the year, based on the robust first quarter and a decline in the anticipated full-year tax rate.

First-quarter net income fell to $44.5 million, or 57 cents a share, from $45.2 million, or 58 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 75 percent to $197 million.

Analysts were looking for earnings of 37 cents a share, excluding exceptional items, on revenue of $138.2 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

For 2009, the company forecast earnings of $1.10 to $1.35 a share, lifting the lower end of its previous forecast by 10 cents a share.

Shares of Marvel -- which has a portfolio of over 5000 characters, including Spider-Man and X-Men -- closed at $31.10 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. They have gained 13 percent in the last month.

(Reporting by S. John Tilak in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)


More from Reuters

Photo

Microsoft loses Word appeal, will adjust program

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it will tweak its Word application to remove a feature judged to be a breach of patent, ensuring that it will be able to continue selling one of its most widely used programs.

» More Top News
Malaysians participate in computer attack and defence hacking competition during The 3rd Annual Hack-In-The-Box Security Conference 2004 in Kuala Lumpur on October 6, 2004. REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad
Commentary:

Year of the breach

Data security breaches are nasty business and should be avoided at all costs, writes Kevin Prince, a chief technology officer at Perimeter e-Security. Here's a look at the biggest breaches and blunders of 2009.  Commentary 

Technology
Soldiers look on as U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates speaks to soldiers at F.O.B. Warrior in Kirkuk, Iraq December 11, 2009. REUTERS/Justin Sullivan/Pool

Are you pregnant? Sir! No, Sir!

There are some 115,000 U.S. troops in Iraq -- and one commander wants to make sure his soldiers don't multiply.  Full Article 

Politics