The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) is out with its first quarter earnings for 2014. The media and entertainment giant reported earnings of $1.11 per share, up from $0.79 per share a year ago. Revenue grew by 10 percent to $11.65 billion. Thomson Reuters had estimates of $0.96 per share and $11.24 billion in revenue.

To show just how high expectations were coming into earnings, and they were strong, WhisperNumber.com sent us a whisper that Disney was expected to report earnings of $1.00 per share. WhisperNumber.com also showed that Disney’s has a 71% positive surprise history.

The individual segments should show just how well things are going. These are broken down as follows:

• Media Networks rose 4% to $5.134 billion – and operating income rose 15% to $2.133 billion;
• Parks and Resorts rose 8% to $3.562 billion – and operating income rose 19% to $457 million;
• Studio Entertainment rose by 35% to $1.800 billion – with operating income up over 100% to $475 million;
• Consumer Products rose 16% to $885 million – and operating income rose 37% to $274 million;
• Interactive rose by 38% to $268 million – and even made $14 million in the quarter for operating income.

The only disappointment we can see from the shareholder aspect was that Disney’s effective income tax rate was 35.2% versus 28.8% a year ago. Free cash flow from operations was up $195 million to $2.38 billion for the quarter.

Chairman and CEO Bob Iger obviously had a lot to be thankful for in this last quarter. His quote for the quarter said,

“We’re extremely pleased with our results this quarter, delivering double-digit increases in operating income across all of our businesses and the highest quarterly earnings per share in the history of the company. Our continued strong performance reflects the strength of our brands, the quality of our content, and our unique ability to leverage creative success across the entire Company to drive value.”

Disney shares closed down 0.2% at $81.03 on Tuesday and its 52-week range is $60.41 to $83.65. Disney shares were indicated up another 0.6% at $81.51 in the after-hours session.

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