Marvel's Superhero Results And Dramatic Stock Drop

Marvel Entertainment's second quarter came in solid, posting a 60 percent increase in net income, and raising its full-year forecast on the boffo performance of "Iron Man" and "The Hulk".

But its stock - MVL - took a superhero-sized tumble, plummeting over 13 percent and ending the day down 11.5 percent. The problem? Marvel raised its full-year earnings outlook to between $1.55 per share and $1.75 per share on $450 million to $480 million in revenues. But those increases weren't as high as Wall Street analysts were expecting, and that's what caused the stock to dip.

Still, Marvel's stock is still up over 27 percent from a year ago, and the stock has been volatile (show 1 year stock chart). It's always interesting to see how slowly movie profits trickle in, and this is a perfect example. Though "Iron Man" hit theaters in May, this past quarter's figures don't include the box office results, though it does include the boost those movies gave the licensing division, where earnings grew 54 percent and revenues were up 45 percent.

Until "Iron Man," Marvel licensed and co-financed its superhero characters to other movie studios. With Sony making a fortune from the Spider-Man trilogy, Marvel saw the benefit of taking all that profit themselves, and distributing through a studio. The numbers are strong, but after "Iron Man's" unexpectedly strong, record-breaking performance, Wall Street was simply expecting more.

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