Walt Disney Co. (DIS)

One of the only media names that have many different platforms to make money. Cable, movie studios, consumer products and theme parks. They are doing well in almost all those segments. Cable was a bit rough back in August because of cable cutting, but they are doing so well with the movie studios. He likes this quite a bit, and long-term it should continue to do well.

A great company, but is tied in a lot to the US$ and has become very expensive to foreign people to travel to the US and spend money. However, if you take out the one time thing relating to broadcasting, the stock has been doing really, really well. As the US economy does better, domestic travel picks up.

(A Top Pick Nov 11/14. Up 34.3%.) Pulled back after the 2^nd quarter, because they brought their cable subscription growth rate down a bit which was a really great chance to pick up the stock. Just reported their 3^rd quarter and things are still on pace. ESPN is a prized asset.

(Top Pick Dec 2/15, Up 30%) There was a stock split. It went to $120 with the start of Star Wars hype. Cord cutting was to affect ESPN, but he thinks they are still in good shape in that business.

He likes this name. If you own, taking a profit is prudent. You never want to let a stock become too large of a percentage of your portfolio. Now that volatility is back in the market, there will be a chance to get back into this company.

This is over 20X on earnings, so less value, but they had 2 seminal things that are happening on their cusp. One is the launch of Star Wars and the other is Shanghai Disney World. Dividend yield of 1.14%.

It has great products and momentum (the force) is with it. Analysts are focusing on the ESPN division with cable cutting and Netflix streaming. The entertainment side of the business of DIS-N is doing well, but you might want to wait for a pullback of 5-10%. The valuation is not exactly cheap.

(Market Call Minute) He has repurchased the shares he got shaken out of earlier in the year.

Longer-term this is a great company. There is a lot of positive news coming out of the company with their movies, holiday sales, etc. They are going to reap the benefits of the money they spent on theme parks. He would buy this one for the long-term. Best in class management team.

(A Top Pick Oct 16/14. Up 43.32%.) Still likes this and bought more in August during the downturn. The cable situation with this company made investors nervous, and that turned out to be a good situation to buy more shares. Have a lot of catalysts in front of them.

He likes what they are doing in Shanghai with their new park. There are a whole bunch of new movie releases which is going to be very positive. A great, long term hold.

Movie releases is still a very big part of the company, but the biggest by far are their networks NBC and ESPN. In general the stock has been pretty strong. This is trading at about 22X PE and you are only getting about 1% yield, so probably most of the good news is reflected in the price. If they have a boffo 4^th quarter with Star Wars, it might still have some legs. Wait for a pullback.

They have a business bigger than the Movie business. Frozen made more money on toy sales than movie sales. Star Wars will probably be the biggest box office in movie history ($3-5 Billion) because they are adding so many screens in China. Star Wars will move the needle far more on IMAX-N than on DIS-N.

It is a top -5 or top -10 media company in the world. It has sold off with the rest of the group and is attractive below $100. There are lots of worries in the world and he goes with Viacom as the multiple is lower. Star Wars is always priced in to the stock.

(Top Pick Sep 15/14, Up 19.64%) People are starting to worry about Cable channel unbundling. In the end this story is exactly what it has always been. It is the greatest conglomeration of media assets out there with great cross selling between them.