Shares of Disney (DIS) jumped 13% Friday to a new all-time high. The stock is now up more than 20% this year, an impressive feat given that the pandemic has wreaked havoc on Disney’s theme park business and forced its movie studios to delay big releases in theaters.
Investors are clearly betting that the streaming strength will offset any lingering weakness in other areas of the House of Mouse empire: Disney raised its forecast for subscriber growth and is upping prices for Disney+.
Wall Street analysts rushed to upgrade Disney following Thursday’s event. At least 13 analysts boosted their price targets on the stock Friday morning.
Citi analyst Jason Bazinet noted in a report Friday that Disney was making a “robust commitment” to new content, noting that the increased costs on programming were paying off as subscriber growth has continued to increase faster than forecast.
The numbers prove Disney can go toe-to-toe with current streaming king Netflix (NFLX), whose shares are up more than 50% year-to-date. In addition to its namesake movie studio and animated library, Disney also owns Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars creator Lucasfilm.
“The Mandalorian,” a Star Wars spinoff, has become a huge commercial and critical success, turning Baby Yoda into a pop culture phenomenon.
Disney also recently acquired studio assets from Fox (FOXA), giving the family-friendly media giant some decidedly more adult-oriented, R-rated fare too. And Disney also now has full control over streaming service Hulu.
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