Disney’s shares have been rising this week in anticipation of their big Investor Day 2020. The stock hit all-time highs multiple times over the past few days. There is a lot of speculation regarding what Disney will announce at the event tomorrow (Thursday December 10th), there seems to be unanimous agreement that it will be focused on *cue Jan Brady’s voice* “Streaming! Streaming! Streaming!”
Wells Fargo raised their “price target” for Disney from $155 a share to $188 a share. This essentially means that they are forecasting that a fair and reasonable stock price for Disney is $188 a share. For context, the share price has NEVER been above $157 a share and only 7 months ago had dropped into the $80 range.
What do Well Fargo analysts predict for Disney’s future?
- They estimate Disney has nearly 120 million global streaming subscribers (not counting Hulu)
- They expect the number to hit 250 million subscribers by 2025
- They expect Disney will announce a case-by-case plan for upcoming theatrical releases, sending some to streaming and maintaining some for theaters. No blanket policy like Warner Bros
- While Disney will announce a FULL court press with investments in streaming, their Parks division will rebound quickly this year and will continue to be the motor driving the company
- They expect the pandemic level cost-cuts to park enhancements to help bring record level revenue for the Parks in 2022 and 2023. Their research indicates that pent-up demand is high and that attendance will return quickly to the parks.
Other major analysts have upgraded Disney’s stock the day before Investor Day, including Morgan Stanley, Loop Capital, KeyBanc and more. Other analysts believe Disney will announce a second tier to their Disney+ service for more adult content. Not quite a Hulu Disney+ merger, but something along the lines of a Disney18+ with a slightly higher monthly fee.
We will not know until tomorrow’s Disney Investor Day 2020 which we will be covering live. I will be live tweeting the four hour event on my Twitter account @SeanNyberg the @theDisInsider twitter account will be releasing stories throughout the presentation, and the website will be reporting in more detail on the stories.
We’ve got an entire team lined up for the event, so stick with us tomorrow afternoon and evening to stay informed.
