The Walt Disney Company’s (DIS) Streaming Segment Set for Profitability as Maturity Approaches

Mar Vista Investment Partners, LLC, an investment management company, released the “Mar Vista Focus strategy” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The S&P 500 index had the best first-quarter performance since 2019—enthusiasm over AI, robust corporate earnings, and anticipation of rate cuts fueling the rise in stock prices. The strategy returned +5.53% net-of-fees in the first quarter compared to +11.41% and +10.56% returns of the Russell 1000 Growth Index and the S&P 500 indexes. Kindly check the top 5 stocks of the strategy to know its best picks in 2024.

Mar Vista Focus strategy highlighted stocks like The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) is an entertainment company that operates through Entertainment, Sports, and Experiences segments. The one-month return of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) was -2.85%, and its shares gained 9.47% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 14, 2024, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) stock closed at $99.97 per share with a market capitalization of $182.249 billion.

Mar Vista Focus strategy stated the following regarding The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:

"The Walt Disney Company's (NYSE:DIS) latest financial results displayed considerable progress, leading to an increase in stock price. The most noteworthy factor was the improved performance of its streaming business. With media profitability recovering, management is optimistically guiding for 20% earnings growth in 2024. This positive outlook is also supported by lower costs and robust performance from its parks division.

Walt Disney's streaming service is on track to become profitable by its fiscal fourth quarter. This aligns with our original investment thesis, which expected the direct-to-consumer (DTC) business to move from a loss of $2 billion to a profit of $1 billion. Even after the recent stock price increase, Walt Disney remains undervalued relative to Netflix. We expect this gap to shrink as its streaming business matures and becomes increasingly profitable over the next few years."

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) is in 31st position on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 92 hedge fund portfolios held The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) at the end of the first quarter which was 89 in the previous quarter. The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) either met or surpassed most of its financial targets in the quarter, primarily due to savings in expenses (See the details here). While we acknowledge the potential of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we discussed The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) and shared Jim Cramer’s stock picks heading into June. RiverPark Large Growth Fund discussed The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.