If Walt Disney(NYSE: DIS) buyers are going to beat the market — one thing that they’ve carried out as soon as (barely) within the final 5 years — they’ve some floor to make up. Shares of Disney declined 0.9% in January, lagging the S&P 500’s 1.4% acquire.
There shall be a few alternatives for Disney to shine regardless of this being the shortest month of the 12 months. All of it begins on Groundhog Day, when Disney presents up its fiscal first-quarter outcomes. The remainder of the month can have a tough time matching that needle-moving second, however there’s by no means a uninteresting second in terms of Disney inventory. Let’s check out some key dates that buyers ought to watch intently in February.
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Picture supply: Disney.
In a uncommon transfer, Disney is releasing its monetary outcomes on a Monday morning. Quarterly performances transfer shares, however it’s not the one factor that the Home of Mouse might have up its white rodent glove. Disney’s board has been saying for a while that it expects to announce CEO Bob Iger’s substitute in early 2026.
Including gasoline to the fireplace that selecting Iger’s inheritor obvious is coming quickly, sources are telling the New York Occasions that Disney’s subsequent CEO might be introduced by the board within the subsequent few days. The frontrunners are inner executives led by Disney Experiences chairman Josh D’Amaro and co-chair of Disney Leisure Dana Walden.
There may be additionally the likelihood that Disney divulges opening timelines for a few of its beforehand introduced theme park growth plans. Additionally hanging within the air is the destiny of the subsequent two Avatar movies. Avatar: The Means of Water was a monetary blockbuster launched over the vacations, however the third entry within the collection fell properly in need of the hauls of the 2 earlier installments. Director James Cameron has advised that he would flip his consideration elsewhere if the third movie have been a disappointment on the field workplace.
There shall be monetary numbers to contemplate, too, after all. Shares of rival Comcast(NASDAQ: CMCSA) jumped 5% within the remaining two buying and selling days of final week — because the market retreated — after posting well-received monetary outcomes. Comcast noticed an enormous soar at its theme parks, fueled by final 12 months’s springtime opening of Epic Universe in Orlando. Its Peacock streaming enterprise continues to be a drag on the underside line, coughing up $700 million in destructive earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for all of 2025.
Issues are the opposite means round for Disney. Its streaming operations have been thriving since turning worthwhile in fiscal 2024. It stays to be seen whether or not the success of Epic Universe is weighing on close by Disney World. Analysts count on income and earnings per share to rise 4% and decline 10%, respectively, within the fiscal first quarter.
Disney has all the time had a lukewarm relationship since buying rights to the Muppets franchise 22 years in the past. It closed down its long-running Muppet*Imaginative and prescient 3D attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in June of final 12 months, solely to finally announce that the characters will change Aerosmith as the celebrities of the resort’s solely looping rollercoaster later this 12 months.
There have been a couple of motion pictures and reboots of its iconic TV present, and it is going again to the properly of the latter. The Muppet Present returns to ABC and Disney+ on Wednesday. Seth Rogen and Sabrina Carpenter shall be company on the franchise’s tried return. The place will it go from right here? Kermit the Frog in all probability says it finest within the trailer saying the brand new comedic and musical occasion.
“It is the return of The Muppet Present! We’re so excited to be again on the very stage the place it began, after which ended, and is possibly beginning once more relying on how tonight goes!”
There may be all the time one thing occurring at Disney’s rising theme park empire. At Disney World — the media inventory’s largest resort — it is time for the annual water park swap. It closes its Hurricane Lagoon gated attraction on Valentine’s Day for routine upkeep and refurbishment. It reopens Blizzard Seaside the next day. Each parks shall be open in the course of the peak summer time season.
A much bigger closure occurs early this week. Disney’s DinoLand U.S.A. will completely shut on Feb. 2. It would reopen subsequent 12 months as Tropical Americas, that includes an Indiana Jones trip and the primary darkish trip themed to 2021’s animated characteristic Encanto. Its Frozen Ever After boat trip at EPCOT can also be set to reopen later in February after updating a few of the attraction’s animatronics. It is by no means a small, small world for Disney’s theme park enterprise. Buyers shall be watching.
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Rick Munarriz has positions in Comcast and Walt Disney. The Motley Idiot has positions in and recommends Walt Disney. The Motley Idiot recommends Comcast. The Motley Idiot has a disclosure coverage.
