(By Salman - iStockAnalyst Writer)
Bullish Stock of the Day : Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL)
Marvel Entertainment, Inc. is an entertainment company which engages in the licensing, publishing, and film production businesses with a proprietary library of approximately 5,000 characters in the United States and internationally. Its library of characters include Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Thor, The Avengers, Ghost Rider, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Blade, Daredevil, The Punisher, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Nick Fury, Silver Surfer, and Ant-Man. The company operates in three segments: Licensing, Publishing, and Film Production.
The company is proving rather
resilient to the recession. Early this month, Marvel Entertainment reported that the first-quarter earnings totaled
$45 million, or 57 cents a share, compared to $45 million, or 58 cents a share, in the year ago period. Revenue jumped nearly 75% to $197 million compared to $113 million. Analysts on average expected the company to earn 36 cents a share on revenue of $135.75 million. The dramatic jump in revenue primarily reflects home video revenues in the Film Production segment from the Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk movies.
The company's Film Production Segment is performing exceptionally well. Revenue at Film Production Segment compared to $90.4 million in prior year period. Licensing net sales dropped to $80.8 million from $84.6 million in the previous year, due to a $24.5 million decrease in sales from the Spider-Man feature film merchandising joint venture with Sony as well as lower Marvel Studios entertainment licensing revenue. However, it was better than company's own expectations. Publishing net sales slipped to $25.8 million from $26.5 million a year ago
Looking forward,
Marvel provided a strong earnings outlook. Marvel raised its earnings guidance and now expects to earn in the range of $86 million or $1.10 a share to $105 million or $1.35 a share compared to previous forecast in the range of $80 million or $1 a share $105 million or $1.35 a share. It also boosted its full-year 2009 net sales guidance to a range of $450 million - $485 million from previously anticipated range of $415 million - $460 million. Analysts currently expect the company to earn $1.22 a share on revenues $452.18 million for fiscal 2009. The company expects Licensing segment and Film Production segment to register strong growth. Licensing segment is expected to contribute net sales of about $200 million - $215 million in 2009 while the Film Production segment to contribute revenues of nearly $135 million - $145 million.
The company has invested heavily in digital distribution of its comic content. Marvel also stands to benefit from growing popularity of interactive games.
