Walt Disney Co.DISBUY ON WEAKNESSMar 13, 2024Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jun 04, 2026. Market Open.
It's a good company, doing the right things. People still want to go their theme parks and cruise ships. Their streamer is doing a good job, taking the baton from linear TV. The stock looks like 2021 during the pandemic. Revenues and EPS are growing above 10% in each of the next two years, is trading at 14x PE and a dividend growing like crazy. But not it's uncomfortable to hold this stock, but you will be rewarded if you are patient.
You have to appreciate its brand power. Does something that no one else in the world can or does, and they do it very well. Lots of avid fans.
That said, not sure its valuation is merited. Cost of running theme parks is very high, and probably getting higher. In an economic slowdown, people may not pay those prices. Media assets are in constant competition. He's a value investor. Wait for a pullback.
Streaming turned profitable by end of 2024, finally, after a reorganization, and is now a major growth driver. Theme parks have been the largest profit generator and they keep coming out with new parks; people are paying high amounts to enjoy them. He expects healthy earnings to come. They will announce a deal between their ESPN and the NFL--sports drives huge profits. Everything is going right, but they need to appoint a successor to Bob Iger.
Mixed feelings. On the positive side, doing exceptionally well in streaming with a great library and great branding. Cross-sells better than anyone. Worried about the parks in the short term -- consumer slowdown, expecting global backlash against the US. Hard to bet against its 6-decade growth story for the long term. Balance sheet in fine shape, decent cashflow. Yield is 0.8%.
That's what he did with Disney. He thought their franchise (theme parks, movies, streaming, EPSN) was worth any amount of money. But he neglected to see their weakened balance sheet, rising programming costs and bungling management. From peak to trough, shares fell more than half. And yet he hung onto his shares out of pride. Disney made some mistake, like buying 21st Century Fox's assets for too much; their former CEO was a bungler; they spent a fortune building Disney+ just as Wall Street cared about profitability and no longer subscriber growth. True, the ex-CEO got a bad hand (pandemic), but he actually lost control of the company. Eventually, the board ousted him and restored Bob Iger. Today, he still believes Disney ahs a great franchise, the balance sheet is fixed and they now have a ton of cash and believes Iger can turn things around (with smart activist investors). Disney now has enough cash if it wants to buy Hulu without straining finances. That's why he bought more shares on weakness.