Disney Remains a Horrible Wreck

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Sep 9, 6:50AM EDT

Disney Remains a Horrible Wreck — © Lukas Bischoff / Getty Images

24/7 Wall St. Insights

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS | DIS Price Prediction) remains one of the great stock market wrecks in recent corporate history.
No one has been able to turn the company around, and no one is likely to do so soon.
Also: Dividend legends to hold forever.

The New York Times recently ran an article about how Bob Iger replaced the man who succeeded him as chief executive officer. It was a waste of ink. Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) remains one of the great stock market wrecks in recent public corporation history, and management changes have not helped what have become desperate investors. The stock is down 37% in the past five years, while the S&P 500 is 105% higher. It is down 23% in the past two years, while the S&P 500 is 38% higher. It is up 7% in the past year, but the S&P 500 has gained 22%.

Most of Disney’s problems remain. Management can point to a tiny profit in its streaming business after billions of dollars in losses since Iger launched it in late 2019. It is still well behind Amazon and Netflix in revenue, and its miniscule margins are not secure.

Disney’s theme parks continued to be the heartbeat of the company. After releasing the last financial figures, management hinted the results were soft. This may be because Disney has started to price itself out of the theme park business. An economic slowdown will tell if that is true.

Disney recently had a huge hit at the box office with “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which has sold more tickets than any R-rated movie in history. It will take more than that to offset a string of mediocre releases. Results from its sports business, led by ESPN, remain stagnant.

Disney’s most recent earnings are not expected to be bested when new results are released. Revenue rose only 1% to $22.1 billion. Disney had a net loss of $0.01 per share, compared to a gain of $0.69 in the year-ago period.

Disney has been beaten down. No one has been able to turn it around, and no one is likely to do so soon.

How Much Is a Trip to Disney World: On a Budget or in Style

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.