Disney Earnings Top Expectations; Shares Rise

Walt Disneyreported on Tuesday quarterly earnings and revenue thatbeat Wall Street's expectations, driven by growth at its media networks such as sports powerhouse ESPN and its theme park business.

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Cinderella's Castle

After the earnings announcement, the entertainment company's shares rose in trading after the closing bell. (Click here for after-hour quotes for Disney.)

The U.S. consumer is "relatively solid" from the company's standpoint, CEO Bob Iger said in an interview on CNBC right after the earnings report.

“Well, we were driven by a few things," Iger said. "One, we had solid programming at our media networks and strong advertising revenue and subscription fees and then of course in parks and resorts, we have continued strengthening of that sector virtually at every one of our parks around the world.” (See the entire Bob Iger interview.)

Disney posted fiscal second-quarter earnings excluding items of58 cents per share, up from 49 cents a share in the year-earlier period.

The company posted net income of $1.1 billion for the fiscal second quarter, a 21 percent gain from a year earlier.

Revenue rose 6 percent to $9.63billion from $9.08 billion a year ago.

Analysts had expected the company to report earnings excluding items of 55 cents a share on $9.56 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.