Walt Disney Co. (DIS)
Communications · NYSE · US
Fundamentals
Valuation and ratings
Walt Disney Co. trades at $99.71, which is 35% below the $135.00 our discounted cash flow model puts on the business. On that measure alone it screens as undervalued, though a DCF is an argument rather than a measurement, and the market is frequently right about why something is cheap.
Our moat model scores it 75 out of 100, which is a wide moat. A moat is a structural reason competitors cannot take the profits away, and it matters more to a long holding period than any single quarter's numbers do.
It changes hands at 15.3 times earnings. Be careful reading that in isolation: for a cyclical business a low P/E arrives at the top of the cycle, when profits are peaking and about to fall, which is exactly when the shares look cheapest and are not.
About Walt Disney Co.
The Walt Disney Company operates as an entertainment company in Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in three segments: Entertainment, Sports, and Experiences. The company produces and distributes film and television content under the ABC Television Network, Disney, Freeform, FX, Fox, National Geographic, and Star brand television channels, as well as ABC television stations and A+E television networks; and produces original content under the Disney Branded Television, FX Productions, Lucasfilm, Marvel, National Geographic Studios, Pixar, Searchlight Pictures, Twentieth Century Studios, 20th Television, and Walt Disney Pictures banners. It also provides direct-to-consumer streaming services through Disney+, Disney+ Hotstar, and Hulu; sports-related video streaming content through ESPN, ESPN on ABC, ESPN+ DTC, and Star; sale/licensing of film and episodic content to television and video-on-demand services; theatrical, home entertainment, and music distribution services; DVD and Blu-ray discs, electronic home video licenses, and VOD rental services; staging and licensing of live entertainment events; and post-production services. In addition, the company operates theme parks and resorts, such as Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort, Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Shanghai Disney Resort, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Vacation Club, National Geographic Expeditions, and Adventures by Disney, as well as Aulani, a Disney resort and spa in Hawaii. Further, it licenses its intellectual property (IP) to a third party that owns and operates Tokyo Disney Resort; licenses trade names, characters, visual, literary, and other IP for use on merchandise, published materials, and games; operates a direct-to-home satellite distribution platform; sells branded merchandise through retail, online, and wholesale businesses; and develops and publishes books, comic books, and magazines. The company was founded in 1923 and is based in Burbank, California.
DIS passes 2 of our 30 screens today
Each screen prints the exact criteria it used, and the circumstances in which it is wrong.
Smart money ownership
42 of the funds we track reported a position in their latest SEC 13F filing. Largest first:
- Arrowstreet Capital, ARROWSTREET CAPITAL, LIMITED PARTNERSHIP$1.38B · 0.7% of book
- Andreas Halvorsen, VIKING GLOBAL INVESTORS LP$1.28B · 3.6% of book
- First Eagle, First Eagle Investment Management, LLC$506.39M · 0.9% of book
- Thomas Gayner, MARKEL GROUP INC.$391.62M · 1.8% of book
- Lindsell Train, Lindsell Train Ltd$309.03M · 9.8% of book
A word of warning on reading these figures: a 13F reports the market value of a holding, so a fund that traded nothing at all still appears to have sold when the price fell. We found 102 companies where the standard reading gives the opposite answer. Only the share count is honest.
Common questions
Is Walt Disney Co. (DIS) undervalued?
Against our discounted cash flow estimate of $135.00, DIS at $99.71 is 35% below fair value. That is one model's answer, not a recommendation, and most of a DCF's output sits in a terminal value nobody can forecast.
Which funds own DIS?
42 of the institutions we track reported a position in DIS in their most recent SEC 13F filing. A 13F is filed up to 45 days after quarter end, so it tells you what a fund held then, not what it holds now.
What is DIS's P/E ratio?
DIS trades at 15.3 times earnings. A low P/E is not automatically cheap: on a cyclical company it is usually a warning that earnings are at a peak.
The full research page for DIS, with financial statements, ownership detail, peer comparison and alerts, is free inside the app.
Data from company filings, exchange quotes and SEC EDGAR 13F disclosures. Quotes are delayed. Metrics we do not have are left out rather than estimated. Educational information, not financial advice.