If you’ve been watching the news over the last few months, the odds are pretty high that you may have seen Disney’s name in a number of stories.
Cinderella Castle at Disney World
First, Disney found itself in the news a number of times regarding Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Bill (what critics call the “Don’t Say Gay” bill). Disney ultimately issued a statement indicating that the bill never should have been passed or signed into law and its goal would be for the law to be repealed, a move that the Florida Governor said “crossed a line.” Following that, the repeal of Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) (which allows Disney World to essentially function as its own county) was placed on the table, and ultimately a bill was passed and signed to dissolve the RCID. Disney has since been in the news for things related to a repeal of its no-fly zone or copyright protections. Following these actions, we’re seeing some changes when it comes to Disney’s stock value.
According to Fox News, Disney could have one of the worst-performing stocks of the year.
Disney stock hit an all-time high at nearly $200 per share back in March of 2021. But, things look very different today.
Disney stock is currently down, but that hasn’t affected theme park attendance
As of Friday, April 22nd, Disney stock closed at $118.27, but fell after hours to $117.88. This is a look at the stock values for the year to date.
You can see just how much the stock values have changed over the last year.
This fall in stock value follows the situations Disney has encountered with the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and criticisms of its actions in relation to that bill.
It also follows the more recent passage of the bill that would dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which was created back in 1967 and has given Disney a great deal of power and discretion over decision-making for the land on which it operates in Orlando. Analysts have previously said that stripping Disney World’s power could cost residents and counties.
Main Street, U.S.A.
But there could be more impacting the stock as well. Fox Business shares that “Disney is also bogged down by investors’ diminishing enthusiasm for streaming services as inflation eats into America’s pocketbooks.” Not too long ago, we saw Netflix announced that it had lost 200,000 subscribers and expects to lose millions more.
Bloomberg noted that these troubles with Netflix could cause investors to “question whether the later-arriving media companies will sign up enough customers to justify all the money they are spending on fresh programming.” Disney stock and others fell a bit during that time as well. At that point (on April 19th) Disney stock was trading at around $124.98 after hours.
EPCOT
UPDATE: Disney stock values have continued to drop. As of May 10th, 2022, the stock was trading at around $108.49.
The last time the stock was close to that value was around June of 2020, at which point the stock was trading at $109.10.
Over the past several years, the last time the stock dropped BELOW today’s $108 price was back in May of 2020.
Now, the $108 price is, of course, nothing compared to the low of $85.98 hit in March of 2020. But times are also dramatically different than they were in March of 2020, at which time the parks had begun to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Disney’s next earnings call is scheduled for May 11th, 2022, at which point we could learn a lot more about what’s happening with the company’s financial situation and stock values could significantly change.
We’ll continue to look for more Disney news, so stay tuned to DFB for all the latest updates.
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You do a great job of presenting fair, balanced, and accurate information. Great job! I appreciate you presenting the information in a truly unbiased and informative way. Disney should pay attention to your lead! As a long time Disney lover, I sure hope they find their way again. Thank you!
Give it time, it will bounce back just like all other big corporation stocks.
Disney should have stuck to entertainment.
If people are really worried about this they should checkout the in depth report on DSNY Newscast. It shows that according to law the dissolution of the Reedy Creek Improvement District can only take place if it is ratified by the district council. As the council are all put in place by Disney, that’s not likely to happen. So unless they change that law as a well, it’s all a bunch of saber rattling.
I paid $18 per share years ago. Is it even worth that? Time will tell. Thanks, Chapek.
I refuse now days to come down and my HUGE family came down yearly. Chapek destroyed any dreams so many people had.if I had stocks I would have sold them too and taken the loss. I betting if they got rid of him and brought back Isler until he trained and led them in the right direction people would return.
Here’s an irony. More than half of the inflation we’re experiencing is not due to supply chain issues, increased demand, and certainly not meager wage increases – it is due to corporate greed. The concentration of corporations in multiple sectors over the past few decades has increased pricing power. When there are so few companies controlling products and services in a sector, the companies all simply raise their prices together, rather than compete for market share by lowering prices which would occur in a truly competitive “free” market.
Corporations are currently using “inflation” as a cover to jack up prices (way, way above any increased costs they are experiencing) for extreme and parasitic profits. Listen to earnings calls – CEOs are actually saying this out loud and proudly. Corporate profits have skyrocketed, many have doubled since last year (that’s billions in profits). They are strangling their customers.
The irony is now their customers have to start cutting back on products and services because they can’t afford to feed such voracious corporate greed, which is hurting businesses. If corporations had simply been well managed and not parasitic, Americans would have more than enough money to keep buying their services and products.
Snake eating it’s own tail.
In terms of Disney, all I keep thinking is: Walt would not be bleeding his guests dry for every last penny in profit. Shame on them.
Good! That’s exactly what they deserve! I hope it continues to drop!
If they are blaming inflation and people cutting back on their spending, I wonder if we will see it affect park attendance. It certainly isn’t getting any cheaper. My July trip is up to over $7,000 so this will be a last hurrah for us. I will miss it because it has been a part of our family travel for 30 years but it has become a once in a lifetime trip cost wise, not something you can take the kids or grandkids yearly.
Thanks for sharing the article, but consider that the statement from Fox was “Disney COULD have one of the worst-performing stocks of the year”. This is speculation only, and if we’re being honest, from a historically Republican-leaning outlet during a time that Disney is having a falling out with a Republican Governor and party.
I have no doubt that Disney stocks could suffer this year, but it would have more to do with the financial decisions being made rather than the political ones. What are people angry and complaining about? Just listen to them. For months, people have been lambasting Disney about increasing prices, talk of smaller portions, longer waits in lines, and not unrelated to that issue btw… that Genie + thing I’ve heard a few people talking about.
Is it possible that Disney stock prices are in danger because of people siding with the Governor and his party? Of course. But put that next to the thing/s people are complaining about more than anything by far, and that’s where the trouble is. If you’re wondering what people’s grumbling has to do with a company’s actual stock price movement, I’d say keep an eye on the Genie + sales report coming soon. On hotel property bookings. On merch sales. On food sales. It’s almost May and every hotel at the Art of Animation has rooms available coming up in Mid June. That’s this June. You have your pick right now. The parks are jam-packed right now you say? Yes, revenge vacationing is in full swing. People are coming out of their Covid bunkers in droves and are craving the sense of normalcy a trip like this brings. I promised my little girl when things were better, I’d make it up to her for the two years we had no vacations. But… I can’t ignore what I’m about to have to pay for this trip. And the MAJOR headache the daily G+ grind is going to add to my day now. RIP Fast Pass. Don’t think this matters? Parks are crowded? The weather today is almost never the weather tomorrow. Think I’m going to do this again? I’ll take that bet my friend. Investors pay attention when large companies make the changes Disney has been making while getting the angry push back Disney has been getting. How many blue-collared folks out there do you suppose want the CEO out right now? And what gets a board’s attention? Nothing more than stock prices. How many share-holders own Magic Bands? I’m guessing quite a few. Any DVC or Platinum Club DCL people out there??
But hey, it could all be nothing and Disney posts record profits this year and their stocks hit an all-time high price, lol. Then all we’ve done here today is bite on a bogus story from a Conservative-friendly station taking a swing at Disney over current politics. Guilty… and ashamed.
I had no intention of this being such a long post either, ughhh. And I could’ve been 1/132 of the way through the Rise of the Resistance line by now….
Don’t know WHY Disney stock would be dropping.
Sure, they’d lose some control with the elimination of the Reedy Creek Development District, but they would also be free of the $130 million/year they spend on the fire department, sheriff office services, waste disposal, etc., which is in addition to the property taxes that they pay that would NORMALLY cover those services.
PLUS there’s a $900million outstanding bond issue that would be handed over the counties, i.e. Disney would no longer owe that debt.
DeSantis, et.al. were NOT thinking through the consequences when they decided to “punish” Disney.
When Disney decides to be the old Disney again and stay out of politics of the few then people will come back and sticks will go up. Maybe ! Hope too much damage hasn’t been done. I know I won’t be back as well as thousands of others. Also not renewing my AP after having it for many years. Oh well I guess my new happy place will be Universal !
Just one more reason the entire Disney corporate staff needs to be fired immediately.
STAY OUT OF POLITICS…………..
Really? Your source to qoute what they think the stock will do is Fox???? This stock has taken huge hits in past and always bounced back better than ever.
Disney stock going down? I sold mine, which I’ve had for about 30 years. WHY? Corporate “Disney ” is not Walt’s Disney. Corporate Disney is about charge as much as possible, show quarterly profits increase, rather than create a magical experience for FAMILIES. Keep charging more until only the very rich can afford a vacation there. Such individuals have a completely different view of the world than a normal family. A majority of the very rich believe money can buy safety/love/control/whatever might be lacking inside one. Magic is created, not bought. And that is what is being crushed here in the name of profit. No Fast Pass, no magical express, control reservations for resorts/parks and such to save more money on personnel resources. Remove indoor theming and storage in rooms of value and moderate resorts to save more corporate money.
I will never forget walking out of Magic Kingdom the very first day. “When You Wish Upon a Star” was drifting around the murmurs of a crowd, tired but energized by the beauty of the day’s experience. My boyfriend and I were both in tears of wonder. 🥰
If Disney dies it will not be because of FL laws or some external threat but corporate greed that has forgotten Walt Disney’s dream and betrayed the loyal Disney fans.
BTW any FL law to “punish” corporate Disney is like jumping off a cliff with a fishing net for a parachute.
Well, it looks like Bob “Paycheck” is going to have another reason to pick our pockets again. With stock prices falling, he needs to do something to support him and his money grabbing cohorts. Jack up prices, cut back on portion sizes and cut more benefits. We might not be able to afford another trip to Disney World.
General public not as stupid as Disney’s leadership thinks. WWWD? Simple plan, keep Walt’s dream alive and make Disney great again!
Right now, you can say the parks are full because people have already made their reservations for 2022. Once people attend for their last hurrah, I predict the hight prices, extra fees, etc. will cause attendance to drop big time in 2023. LISTEN to how many people have said, “I’m done with Disney”, here, on FB, and other Social media sites. Social media is allowing us to “talk”, and we don’t have much good to say about Disney.
Rob, I totally agree with you. Our family is doing the same thing.
Follow up comment; remember that scene in that Santa Claus movie when Martin Short took over the North Pole and totally made it into a cash-grabbing tourist trap? “Pay to pet a reindeer”… I’m sure there would be an Individual Lightning Lane offered too if current Disney brass were in charge.
This could be a little bit of both, but I think it’s more about the business decisions than political ones. People are split on the political issue, but there’s almost unanimous anger towards the business decisions Disney has been making.
Disney has been Chapeked, they have moved so far away from what had made them “Magical”
I hope they change course
Destroy your own brand and your stock falls 80% and there are still those who want to make excuses. For decades corporations avoided political issues for this very reason, you immediately alienate half the population and in this case I think even more than half. It was a stupid business move on their part and the numbers don’t lie.
Today’s Disney is NOT the same Disney. Low quality movies, bad Disney Park experiences, EVERYTHING is overpriced, getting involved in politics and trying to push their president’s personal social agenda… need I go on? Disney USED to be a place to escape to… now it is a place to escape FROM. We are joining the large population of people that won’t be fattening Disney’s pockets in ANY way- no parks, Disney cable channels or Disney movies. I vote with my wallet. Bye bye Disney. Thank you Michael E. You were great at Disney. What you created has been ruined.