Stock Spotlight: Disney's magic touch fades as valuation falls

Poor quarterly results

Disney’s recent Q4 results painted a blue image of the stock, revealing the firm had fallen short of expectations for profit and key revenue segments, leading to an 8% drop in share price.

Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, described the results as "disappointing", after large investments into the firm's streaming services has caused "eye-watering" losses. Arthur Castle, equity analyst at Charles Stanley, agreed, stating this had clearly been a bad quarter for Disney "on multiple fronts". He noted the average revenue per user for the firm's streaming services "came in light", while expenses in the direct-to-consumer business remained elevated. This has instilled further disappointment from the market, he said, as consumer spending continue...