Yahoo Finance Disney (DIS) Set to Expand Portfolio With New Marvel Series
Disney DIS is set to launch Secret Invasion, a new Marvel series, exclusively on Disney+ on Jun 21. The series stars Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and is directed by Ali Selim.
Marvel, being one of the largest movie franchises, has grouped its movies into phases. The recently released Ant-Man and the Wasp-Quantamania announced the start of phase five for Marvel. Phase five includes more than 12 movies and series, which will be released by the end of 2024.
Disney+ has become one of the most popular streaming services thanks to its strong portfolio of shows and movies. The service offers nearly 700 movies and 11,700 episodes of television shows from brands such as Disney, Pixar, Marvel and National Geographic, and Disney+ originals.
Disney also has a strong pipeline of original movies and shows coming up in the next few months, including Crater (May 12), Peter Pan & Wendy (Apr 28), Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures (May 4), and American Born Chinese (May 24), among others.
The Walt Disney Company Price and Consensus
The Walt Disney Company price-consensus-chart | The Walt Disney Company Quote
Moreover, the company has an impressive line-up of movies that include The Little Mermaid, Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3, Elemental, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Haunted Mansion, most of which will eventually land in Disney+.
Disney’s Strong Content Portfolio to Aid Growth
Disney, along with media companies like Comcast CMCSA and Paramount PARA, is suffering from intensifying competition in the saturated streaming space dominated by Netflix NFLX.
In fact, Disney+ lost subscribers in the last reported quarter. As of Dec 31, 2022, Disney+ had 161.8 million paid subscribers compared with 164.2 million as of Oct 1, 2022.
Disney shares have declined 27.7% in the past year, underperforming Netflix and Comcast but beating Paramount. Netflix, Comcast and Paramount shares have declined 11.7%, 21.2% and 40.8%, respectively.
Nevertheless, it is focusing on the realignment of costs, including rationalization of marketing spending, and optimization of content slate and distribution approach to deliver a steady state of high-impact releases that efficiently drive engagement. This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company expects Disney+ to reach profitability by 2024. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Moreover, the revival in Parks, Experiences and Products businesses is encouraging for Disney. Theme Park business is likely to gain from strong demand across both domestic and international parks.
It expects to reduce annualized non-content-related expenses by roughly $2.5 billion. It also expects $3 billion of annualized savings in non-sports-related content spending. Management expects overall cost savings to be $5.5 billion over the next few years.
For 2023, Disney expects segment operating income to grow in the high single-digit percentage range.
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