Walt Disney Co. shares dropped 0.75% to $186.49 on Monday, which wasn’t a terribly good day for trading all the way around. As of writing this article, DIS stock is at $185.62.
However, Disney stock performed worse than competitor Comcast, owner of theme park rival Universal. Comcast Corp. fell 0.47% to $53.32.
From Yahoo! Finance…
Prior to today’s trading, shares of the entertainment company had lost 4.5% over the past month. This has lagged the Consumer Discretionary sector’s loss of 2.48% and the S&P 500’s gain of 6.61% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from DIS as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be May 13, 2021. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.28, down 53.33% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $15.96 billion, down 11.37% from the year-ago period.
Even though Disneyland is opening soon, Disney’s global theme park business has been coasting on fumes during the pandemic. Its cruise lines are dead in the water until the cruise industry is cleared to resume.
The sole bright spot for Disney this far has been Disney+, which has seen a surge in subscribers. However, it’s still years away from profitability.
From Motley Fool…
Disney reported over 146 million paid subscribers for its Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu streaming services as of Jan. 2, 2021. It has since announced that Disney+ surpassed 100 million subscribers. The company now sees peak operating losses for the new Disney+ service occurring this year, and profitability in fiscal 2024. The popularity has already given the company confidence to raise pricing on the service for the first time.
Still Disney stock is doing shockingly well all things considered. The pandemic should’ve gutted their stock price, and instead it surged to an all-time high of $208.91 on March 8, 2021.
Disney’s stock prices seem to hinge a lot on hope.
Hope that the pandemic will soon be officially over and people will resume travelling once again.
Hope that Disney+ will be a legitimate Netflix competitor and become a fixture in most households for years to come.
Hope that tentpole franchises like Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar continue to dominate the entertainment landscape.
Let’s just hope it works out for them, and that investors remain as hopeful.
[Source: MarketWatch]
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