Hope springs eternal in the human breast, and that’s just what turned entertainment giant Disney (NYSE:DIS) around today. While the last few months have been a litany of disasters—parks declining, strikes crippling content production, entire state governments fighting them—there’s word that a turnaround may be in the making, and for some analysts, potentially even this quarter. That was enough to give Disney over 4% extra at one point in Thursday afternoon’s trading.
Leading the charge was Jessica Reif Ehrlich, analyst with Bank of America. Ehrlich kept her Buy rating on Disney in place, and also kept the $135 price target as well. Ehrlich cited Disney’s “solid” results with its latest earnings round, and called the outlook on full-year 2023 figures a “new area of optimism,” one of several that would emerge. The upcoming price hikes on Disney+ service will likely help, somehow, as well. Several other analysts stepped in on Ehrlich’s sid, calling attention to cost-cutting measures and potential sales of linear television properties.
In fact, Bob Iger’s return as Disney’s CEO brought with it a range of changes that should, with any luck, prove beneficial to the company and the stock by extension. Creativity was made a new priority, though the impact of that is hard to tell as we wait for the newest remake of “Snow White” to emerge. Further, the cost-cutting measures are actually on track to save more than the $5.5 billion originally projected. That should be a much more concrete aid to keeping Disney in play. Further augmenting of direct-to-consumer operations have already brought in an extra billion dollars in less than a year of being up.
And for the most part, analysts are on board. With 14 Buy ratings, six Hold and two Sell, Disney stock is considered a Moderate Buy by analyst consensus. Further, with an average price target of $113.95, Disney stock offers investors a 25.19% upside potential.
