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Disney matched the S&P 500’s 23.3% return last year, but it has more than doubled the market’s return so far in 2025.
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There have been stumbles at the cinema and revenue is barely inching along, but nearly everything else is bullish for Disney.
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One analyst is boosting his price target on the stock to $140, and he’s not even the Street-high on Disney right now.
Some upticks sneak up on you. Shares of Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) notched a fresh 52-week high on Thursday and again on Friday this week. This follows the media giant scoring a 23% jump last year, matching the S&P 500‘s return after falling short in each of the three previous years. The media giant is actually winning so far in 2025.
Disney stock‘s 11% ascent this year heading into the weekend may not seem like a lot, but it’s more than double the S&P 500’s comparable 5% gain. Bears may be surprised to see Disney outperforming the market over the past year and a half, given its uninspiring top-line growth and some recent misses on high-profile theatrical releases. Reality is kinder than the negative narrative. Let’s take a closer look at how Disney is overcoming its near-term challenges while thriving in the new normal.
Disney shares are up more than 35% since the start of last year, and that’s not including the modest dividend that it reinstated at the start of fiscal 2024 and has already hiked twice. Trailing revenue has only risen 6% from where it was six quarters ago. Disney also has had a few misfires at the multiples this year. The rising shares may not seem to match the fundamentals, but there are a lot of neat things happening at the House of Mouse outside of those two knocks.
Fiscal 2024 was a breakthrough for Disney. It reversed a disappointing 2023 at the box office by landing last year’s three highest-grossing movies worldwide. Disney+ and the rest of the company’s streaming operations turned profitable halfway through the year, earlier than expected. Generating positive net income after sporting massive losses has done wonders for the bottom line. Disney’s trailing operating profit has increased 50% since the end of fiscal 2023, with earnings from continuing operations soaring nearly threefold in that time.
Disney has seen disappointing ticket sales for its Snow White live-action reboot and Pixar’s computer-animated Elio in 2025, but they haven’t all been theatrical duds. The studio has put out more than half of this country’s top five releases this year. Disney also posted blowout quarterly results in May, silencing any potential bearish rumblings. On the theme park front, Disney’s domestic operations surprised Wall Street with a strong showing in its latest update. There was also the bar-raising news of a new Disney-licensed theme park being built in Abu Dhabi, bankrolled by the developer. This is a different kind of Disney coasting now, and Wall Street is starting to pay attention.
