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36 per share, compared to $379 million or $0.19 per share for the year-ago quarter. On average, 19 analysts polled by First Call / Thomson Financial expected the company to earn $0.

34 per share for the fourth quarter. Segment operating income for the fourth quarter increased 85% to $1.6 billion from $880 million in the prior year quarter.

Disney said revenue for the fourth quarter increased 14% to $8.78 billion from $7.73 billion in the same quarter last year.

Twelve analysts had consensus revenue estimate of $8.69 billion for the company's fourth quarter. Media Networks revenues for the fourth quarter 10% to $3.

7 billion and segment operating income increased 18% to $883 million. Fourth quarter operating income at Cable Networks increased $156 million to $854 million due to growth at ESPN, driven by higher affiliate and advertising revenues and lower marketing expenses. Operating income at Broadcasting decreased $19 million to $29 million for the fourth quarter as improved performance at the ABC Television Network and higher DVD unit sales of Touchstone Television series were more than offset by the increased costs associated with the roll-out of Disney branded mobile phone services and the FCC license impairment charge.

Parks and Resorts revenues for the fourth quarter increased 8% to $2.5 billion, while segment operating income increased 28% to $396 million due to improvements at the company's international resorts and at Walt Disney World. The company said growth in operating income at Walt Disney World was driven by increased guest spending, theme park attendance, and hotel occupancy, while improvements at international resorts was mainly attributed to a full quarter of theme park operations at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort as compared to the costs associated with its grand opening late in the prior-year quarter, as well as higher guest spending and increased theme park attendance at Disneyland Resort Paris.

Studio Entertainment revenues for the fourth quarter increased 33% to $2.0 billion and segment operating income increased $527 million to $214 million, driven by strong performance of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, lower film cost write-downs at Miramax, and lower distribution costs resulting from fewer Miramax releases. The home entertainment division also contributed to the segment's strong performance.

Consumer Products revenues for the quarter increased 9% to $564 million and segment operating income increased 1% to $139 million. The company generated free cash flow for the fourth quarter of $1.9 billion, compared to $705 million last year.

During the fourth quarter, the company repurchased 96 million shares of its common stock for $2.8 billion. At the end of the fourth quarter, the company had authorization in place to repurchase about 206 million additional shares.

For the fiscal year 2006, the company reported net income of $3.4 billion or $1.64 per share, compared to $2.

5 billion or $1.22 per share for the fiscal year 2005. Revenue for the fiscal year 2006 increased 7% to $34.

29 billion from $31.94 billion in the prior year period. Analysts expected the company to earn $1.

58 per share on revenue of $34.29 billion for the fiscal year 2006. Among others in the industry, Rupert Murdoch controlled News Corp.

( | | | ) on Wednesday reported a profit for the first quarter as compared to a loss last year, when it had a big accounting charge. Revenue for the quarter grew 4.1%.

Earlier this month, Time Warner Inc. ( | | | ) reported third quarter earnings that more than doubled from last year, thanks to a cable deal with Adelphia and an emerging turnaround at its AOL unit, while revenue rose 7%. In terms of stock performance, Disney shares have gained about 30% during the last year and rose about 8% in the fourth quarter.

The stock trades at 19.6 times Disney's estimated fiscal 2007 profit, compared to Time Warner's 19.4 times forward earnings and Viacom's 17.

5 times. Disney shares, which are trading in the range of $23.77 to $33.

24 over the past one year, closed Thursday's regular trading session at $33.58, up 48 cents or 1.45% but lost 78 cents or 2.

32% in after hours trading.