Walt Disney Co. (DIS)

This was a Top Pick on March 13/13. He sold his holdings on a valuation basis. Had been a great story.

Big company with a lot of parts, but, the main components are ESPN the TV asset, studios, which make movies and the theme parks. The big earnings drive over the last few years has been the TV business. ESPN is safe until 2020 because of their big locked in contracts. Continue to gain fee increases for their popular TV networks and continue to expand their theme parks. They are scheduled to generate a good amount of free cash flow over the next couple of years, so you can expect dividend growth. 10%-15% total growth might be reasonable or the next few years.

Has owned this so many times over the years and the dumbest things he keeps doing is selling it and then buying it back again. To him this is the best growth story in the US and has been through the years. Not only have they grown over time, but they have morphed into being in the exact area as you want to be with such as adding ESP and, way back, adding ABC networks. Recently added Pixar. Yield of 1.06%. Could easily see it in the mid-$80s.

He is moving assets from Canada to the US and this is a name that he has recently purchased. Getting money out of Canada and into more diversified names with a more global focus is a prudent thing to do, especially with the Cdn$ near parity. This company has been investing a lot over the past few years into content and they haven’t seen a lot of that money come back yet. He thinks they will.

Long-term chart shows a strong upward trend from late 2011 and there is nothing to say that you should sell. Lots of fundamental news coming out, but there is nothing there suggesting any problems. Use any kind of dip to accumulate this.

Entertainment Stocks. He is positive on them. Stocks that appeal to the upper middle class and higher have done well. Time Warner was a poster child for bad capital allocation for years. They have turned it around. It is worth a look now. Disney is broader based, but it trades off of cyclical news, but even so, he prefers this one.

Expects there will be strong growth in the theme parks. They are calling for upside surprises in the 6%-7% range. Broadcast assets are doing really well, as well as theme parks. Good name.

He likes media and content providers. He likes companies that are benefiting from the increased free cash flowing that the US consumer has. As interest rates and inflation on food and energy have moved down, free cash flow is there to be spent. Have a theme Park opening in Shanghai in 2015. $74 next year is not unreasonable.

This is a name that he would be interested in buying here. Likes their ability to monetize their assets. Very good at product development. Trading at a relatively good valuation for one of the best brands that is out there. Spent a lot of money over the last 2-3 years investing in the theme park so there is a big run off in costs for them. They can put that money back into other areas. Feels the stock can be 20% higher in 2-3 years without any problem.

(A Top Pick Sept 20/12. Up 25.8%.) This is a theme that he thinks has legs. It’s a theme on content and a theme on mobility. Their parks only make up about 30% of their total revenue. Good content.

If buying wait for a 5-10% correction. A brand leader that will create quite a following.

A very well run business. They have very valuable content in terms of channels and theme parks. 18 times earnings but growing earnings.

Has a lot of great things in front of it. The new Disney World in China will be opening. Acquisitions of Marvel and Lucas Films. Thinks they are going to find a lot of synergies with their theme parks, merchandise and movies. 1.2% dividend is projected to grow at 20% per year.

Great company and well run. Had a few issues of late. Also, have made a bunch of mergers as they are trying to grow their franchise in certain areas and he thinks they will be very successful. One of the problems he has is that the film industry is very hit and miss so there may be more volatility in their earnings than people think. Their parks business continues to do very well.

Great company and pretty reasonably valued.