Entertainment giant Walt Disney Co. (DIS) has announced plans to close its Florida theme park as Hurricane Milton makes landfall in the state.
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Disney is closing down its Florida parks in shifts. Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom will shutter at 1:00 p.m. EST, and an hour later, Disney Springs, EPCOT, and the Magic Kingdom will follow suit. Most of the parks will be closed as the storm passes across Florida.
Disney will not enforce any of its cancellation policies as a result of this event, and will automatically refund any prepaid bookings. This is not standard procedure; most hurricanes tend to lose strength after getting as far inland as Orlando. In fact, hurricanes have closed Disney just nine times over the last 50 years.
Disney Again Raises Prices
In addition to closing its Florida park, Disney has also announced that it is again raising prices to visit its theme parks at peak times and on holidays. What is noteworthy about this newest price hike is that it comes on the heels of news that spring 2024’s parks admissions were weak and profits were down.
So the plan to recover appears to be to make the Disney experience even less accessible than it already was. There are still some options that might make the experience more accessible, such as going at off peak times of the year, or shopping for discounts on tickets.
Is Disney Stock a Buy or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on DIS stock based on 15 Buys and four Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 10.35% rally in its share price over the past year, the average DIS price target of $113.36 per share implies 21.68% upside potential.
