Walt Disney said today its profits have doubled, thanks to growth from its theme parks and movies and TV shows such as Pirates of the Caribbean and High School Musical, but its shares fell 2 per cent after touching a five-year high.
Disney said US hotel bookings were flat in the current quarter, and some analysts said investors were concerned the company would not be able to maintain its growth spurt.
"They had an absolutely outstanding year and it's just going to be hard to beat that," David Miller of Sanders Morris Harris said. "When you're this large, it's hard to grow fast."
The shares yesterday had hit their highest level since mid-2001, and were trading at a small premium to Disney peers.
Expectations for Disney have risen since Chief Executive Robert Iger took over last year and began an aggressive series of moves such as buying Pixar Animation Studios, making cuts at the film unit, and offering content for sale on the Internet.
Disney reported a fourth-quarter net profit of $782 million, or 36 cents per share, compared with $379 million, or 19 cents per share, a year before.
Revenue rose 14 per cent to $8.8 billion. Analysts, on average, expected earnings of 33 cents per share and revenue of $8.7 billion for the quarter, according to Reuters Estimates.
Disney does not give quarterly forecasts, but this year it projected double-digit earnings per share growth through 2008.
Chief financial officer Tom Staggs said hotel bookings at domestic parks for the quarter to December were in line with a year ago, when Disney had record holiday attendance.