I’ve been watching this thread (and others for a bit now), I am a shareholder who bought DIS in 2008. Im sitting pretty on a big gain but not much to show for recent times. Not thrilled about the lack of dividend but accepted it for a while. However.
There are a lot of factors to consider on whether to buy or continue to hold DIS. I haven’t done all the research yet but need to do an in-depth review to see if it’s time to “take some profits” because in the near term I think there are other stocks that could earn a better return. The question I ask as a stockholder who is no longer receiving dividends is -
where will the growth come from?
Here are some factors I haven’t seen discussed lately that I think have an impact on the stock performance or that we should at least be looking at in terms of business success:
1) conversion of hotel rooms to DVC rooms. DVC could be considered similar to “subscribers” as they are committed to annual dues. Likewise, the affect that conversion has had on pricing power of resort rooms at WDW resorts and necessity to deliver higher than expected service. I would love to see data on how many dvc rooms built/sold etc during each year and future projections as well as a graph of the hotel room prices and available quantity of them.
2) end of franchises and box office revenues. Disney chose to end the most popular phase of avengers, new Star Wars Movies, and the Cars and Toy Story franchises in the last 4 years. That has an impact. What’s in the pipeline? Avatar. Historically an international blockbuster. That should help. But enough?
3) aforementioned franchises connection to consumer products.
4) D+ is just not the same as Netflix. It’s much more similar to all the other streaming service. However, D+ pulled forward most subscribers in the pandemic and while they will probably keep most, where is the growth going to come from? I think they have a captive audience for the young family set. But their other shows are not quite hitting the mark.
5) anecdotally I have heard from several people who normally go to Disney every year or several times a year - G+ and “crowds” are keeping them away… for now. And they aren’t recommending it to first time visitors.
6) G+ doesn’t work at this price point. It is frustrating guests and sending a bad message.
7) the negative effects of G+ will not be seen immediately. I wish I could see the data of 2019 visitors vs 2022 vs 2023. things like first time vs repeat, overall spend, where from, length of stay, etc.
8) I’m frustrated that the current political issues will obscure the real guest experience issues that are happening with ride downtime, G+ Stress, park hopping restrictions, etc.
9) international travel and cruise travel is having impact on Disney and other theme park and domestic travel still.
10) “long wait times” and “feels crowded” and “park reservation availability” and “resort availability” does not necessarily correlate to high attendance. I wish we could see actual attendance figures. Wait times and room availability can be affected by supply availability, park pass manipulation, etc.
11)
Disneyland was shut down for nearly a year (or more). Theaters were shut down for a long long time too. Live sports was shut down. Filming of tv and movies stopped. That’s a lot of ground for Disney to make up which impacts stock prices.
12) for the last 30 years, DIS was growing by building parks domestically and internationally, buying TV networks, building out the cruise line, DVC, adventures by Disney, and deals with Pixar, marvel and Star Wars, Fox. It is now a very mature company. Right now, I am not going to pay high multiples like I would for an early stage growth company. the interest rate hike could have workEd in their favor if they were healthy enough to be still paying a dividend. i Would prefer them to grow revenue by adding new revenue streams instead of breaking apart what they have (which they started pre-pandemic with the increase in after hours parties and early morning paid events) and raising prices, but I don’t see that changing any time soon.
Not saying the current political situation is good for their stock - but it’s far from the only problem that Disney is facing right now.