Marvel Entertainment Inc. (MVL), a character-based entertainment company engaged in the licensing, publishing and film production businesses, recently reported third-quarter 2009 results. The quarterly earnings of 26 cents a share bettered the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 24 cents but fell sharply by 59.4% from 64 cents delivered in the prior-year quarter. Total revenue also tumbled 42.1% year-on-year to $105.7 million. The fall in both the top and bottom lines was due to lower licensing and film production revenues. Licensing revenue slipped 15.8% to $48.9 million, whereas film production revenue dipped 72.5% to $24.8 million. While no films were released in the reported quarter, the year-ago quarter benefited from the releases of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, in addition to its Spider-Man merchandising joint venture. Marvel is slated to release four films ahead: Iron Man 2 in 2010, Thor and The First Avenger: Captain America ...

Disney’s Spidey Sense is Tingling

by Louise Harris, Investment U Research Team

The entertainment world is changing, and companies in the business know that all too well… hence the reason why The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) just announced its acquisition of Marvel Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: MVL)

Comic book fans might hate the move, but in order to survive in today’s climate, Disney has to look outside the box office to the whole entertainment package.

Gone are the days when movies made all their money at the box office. And with DVD sales shrinking, Hollywood has no choice but to bring in more revenue by delving into toys, videogames, clothing, rides, digital copies of movies and Internet streaming.

Naturally, Disney hopes to milk the merger for all its worth, exploiting Marvel’s 5,000 characters across the entire spectrum over the

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The Walt Disney Company (DIS) recently announced another venture in the video game business. The company’s interactive entertainment affiliate, Disney Interactive Media Group, has reached an agreement to acquire the Chicago-based videogame manufacturer Wideload Games. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. As part of the agreement, Alexander Seropian, founder and CEO of Wideload Games, will become Vice President of Creative at Disney Interactive Studios, and will report directly to Global Product Development Senior Vice President Jean-Marcel Nicolai. Disney Interactive Studios develops and distributes a wide range of multi-platform video games, mobile games and interactive entertainment globally. The acquisition of Wideload Games will help it enhance its market share in the video game industry. Wideload Games is currently developing a family console game scheduled for release in 2010 from Disney. This is the second consecutive acquisition announcement by Disney. Last week, Disney announced its plans ...

DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Monday August 31, 2009

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Six Flags, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SIXFQ), the world’s largest regional theme park company, is celebrating Back-to-School 2009 with the Six Flags Back-to-School Blast featuring a national sweepstakes and an exciting concert series with some of today’s hottest talent.

CA (Nasdaq: CA) CA today announced that the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing (45th SW), which manages launch operations for Department of Defense space programs, has saved at least $180,000* in hardware and support costs by virtualizing its IT infrastructure, using CA ARCserve Backup to protect data across physical and virtual servers and CA

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Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #1 Rank ("strong buy") List today:

Advanced Energy Industries Inc (AEIS) American Medical Systems Holdings Inc (AMMD) BCE Inc (BCE) Bemis Company Inc (BMS) BG Group Plc (BRGYY) California Pizza Kitchen Inc (CPKI) CarMax Inc (KMX) Carter's Inc (CRI) Casual Male Retail Group Inc (CMRG) Encore Capital Group Inc (ECPG) Huaneng Power International Inc (HNP) Ingram Micro Inc (IM) Isle of Capri Casinos (ISLE) Jefferies Group Inc (JEF) LTC Properties Inc (LTC) Luxottica Group SpA (LUX) ...

A comparison of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:PLA) and Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:MVL) allows us to define the only proper strategy to trade the upcoming FriendFinder Networks IPO.

The times, they are a-changin’! These days, you could become 51% owner of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:PLA) for less than $50 million. I’m not sure what you’d do with half of Hef’s robe or half of his harem of nubile blondes. But it sure has a certain ring to it!

If you wanted to become half-owner of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:MVL), however, you’d have to shell out $1.35 billion! Comic books are now worth 27 times as much as the well-written articles and witty cartoons that I hear are the sales engine of Playboy magazine.

The interesting part of this is that the demographic both businesses used to appeal to are nearly identical: Adolescent and post-adolescent male virgins.

Only that Playboy’s original audience

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Chicago, IL - May 26, 2009- Kevin Matras shows how to focus on the right stocks with the right kinds of surprises. Stocks in this week's article include Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (MVL), Plantronics, Inc. (PLT), Spartan Motors, Inc. (SPAR), Thompson Creek Metals Company, Inc. (TC) and Zoran Corp. (ZRAN).

Screen of the Week written by Kevin Matras of Zacks Investment Research:

As we wrap up this recent quarter's earnings season, one thing that strikes me is the amount of extreme reactions to the earnings announcements.

Seems like either a surprise up or surprise down was met with an immediate double-digit price reaction - often in gap fashion.

The reasoning behind the market's aggressive reactions this go-around is an interesting topic.

But today, I'm more concerned with why, as an investor, you should care about surprises.

First off, an earnings surprise is

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Stocks highlighted in this article are: Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (...

Highlights include Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (MVL), The Walt Disney Company (DIS), Time Warner, Inc. (TWX), News Corporation (NWS) and Viacom, Inc. (VIA).Marvel Entertainment's (MVL) characters are demonstrating super-human resiliency to the recession. The comic book publisher reported 1Q09 EPS of $0.57, trouncing the Zacks estimate ($0.35) and the consensus ($0.36), driven largely by the timing of film revenue recognition, but also by better-than-expected licensing and film production results.EPS in the year-ago quarter was $0.58, benefiting from the release of two self-produced films. No films were released in 1Q09.Because most of the 1Q09 earnings beat came from earlier-than-expected recognition of film production revenue, management raised the lower end of its 2009 EPS guidance by just $0.10 -- reflecting stronger licensing and film production revenue, and a lower effective tax rate.Though no new films were released in 1Q09, ...

Marvel Entertainment Inc. (MVL) owns the rights to well recognized characters, including include Spider-man, X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, and The Fantastic Four. The company's business model of leveraging its library of more than 5,000 trademarked and often ubiquitous characters across 3 businesses - comic books, toys and films - while putting little capital at risk has proven lucrative, generating operating margins and ROE [return on equity] averaging 56% and 37%, respectively, from 2003 to the present. We expect EPS to fall by 58% in 2009, but recover in 2010 to eclipse 2008 levels, driven by the timing of the company's film slate. The newly launched film production unit has performed very well thus far, producing two high grossing films in 2008, "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk." Two films a year are planned for 2010 and beyond, which we think can contribute to high-teens average ...