
Disney gets a price target increase from Loop Capital as media giant gains full control of Hulu
Taking full control of Hulu will lead to more gains for Walt Disney , according to Loop Capital. The investment firm raised its price target for the entertainment conglomerate to $130 from $125 per share, implying about 12% upside. Analyst Alan Gould kept his buy rating on shares as well. Gould's price target revision comes after Disney agreed to pay Comcast another $438.7 million to finalize its purchase of Hulu, concluding an appraisal process that has lasted since 2023. That amount is well below a potential liability of about $5 billion. Disney has already paid Comcast $8.6 billion for its 33% stake. DIS YTD mountain DIS YTD chart "The outcome provides clarity and allows Disney to fully integrate Hulu into both Disney+ and the upcoming ESPN streaming service. Based on our FY2025 estimates, the valuation implies approximately 3.3x revenue and just under less than $500 per subscriber for the Hulu SVOD service," Gould wrote. The transaction will likely close either on or before July 24. Disney shares ticked higher in the premarket following the price target increase. Year to date, they are up nearly 4%. Analysts are mostly bullish on Disney. Of the 33 who cover the stock, 26 rate it a buy or strong buy, according to LSEG. Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

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How Disney's original Snow White changed cinema forever
Disney probably thought the decision to remake Snow White was as safe a bet as it's possible for there to be in Hollywood. When the film was announced in 2016, the likes of Alice in Wonderland and The Jungle Book had become massive cash cows — with Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin coming down the pipeline. But, in the years since then, attitudes to Disney's live-action remakes have curdled and Snow White has become a lightning rod for controversy. But none of this was even a flicker in anybody's eye almost 90 years ago when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs first arrived in cinemas, revolutionising the art form of cinema. It was the first full feature to use cel animation and the first animated feature film made in the United States. Nowadays, it's the first in the series of Disney Animated Classics. In the 1930s, Walt Disney achieved success with the Silly Symphony series of short films, which included the Oscar-winning 1933 take on Three Little Pigs — a short that earned more than 10 times its production budget. Disney, though, was determined to embrace the financial potential offered by a fully animated feature, considering classic tales like Alice in Wonderland, Babes in Toyland, Bambi, and Rip Van Winkle for adaptation. Disney introduced the idea of Snow White to his staff in 1934, inspired by the silent film version of the story he'd seen as a teenager. Some staff referred to the project as "Disney's Folly", unsure that the storytelling style that worked in Silly Symphonies could be sustained to feature-length. But the determined boss began to hold story meetings with writers, mainly to avoid us having dwarfs with names like Biggo-Ego, Burpy, and Baldy. A very close escape. The dwarfs were initially envisaged as the main draw by Disney, who thought they had more comedic potential than any of the other characters. But eventually, the concept drilled down to focusing on the relationship between Snow White and the Queen. Sorry, Biggo-Ego. Visually, the film was influenced by other major studio movies of the time, as well as the darker and more shadowy edges of German expressionist classics like Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. It's an amusing contrast given how far apart the 2025 adaptations of Snow White and Nosferatu have turned out to be — assuming there's not a secret deleted scene from the new Snow White in which Rachel Zegler bites the head off a pigeon. Disney's animation team was largely made up of newspaper cartoonists, but one of the few animators with more relevant experience was Grim Natwick — responsible for drawing Betty Boop. Natwick was put in charge of animating Snow White herself, with accomplished dancer Marge Champion brought in to film live-action footage as a reference point. At one stage, the animation team encouraged her to dance wearing an American football helmet to simulate the larger heads of animated characters. She nearly fainted as a result. The process of the animation itself was long and laborious. One cartoonist, Helen Ogger, was tasked with dabbing a red dye on to each individual cel in order to add colour to the characters' faces — a method never used to the same extent again, partly because only Ogger had the skill for it. With all of this effort and expense, the film was an enormous risk. Disney mortgaged his home and also managed to secure a $250,000 (£193,000) loan. Fortunately for all involved, Snow White quickly became the most successful sound movie of all time — until it was unseated by Gone With the Wind two years later — and earned a substantial profit at the box office. Snow White's impact was swiftly recognised. Disney was awarded an honorary Oscar — including seven tiny statuettes — as a result of what the Academy felt was "a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field". Cinematic pioneer Sergei Eisenstein called it the greatest film of all time. Snow White remains the only Disney Princess to have her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But most crucially, Snow White fired the starting pistol on Disney's dominance as a cultural force. The profits from the movie allowed for the development of The Walt Disney Studios location in Burbank, as well as opening the door for a production line of animated features. In the next decade alone, Disney made eight further animated movies, including Pinocchio, Bambi, and Dumbo. It's no exaggeration to say that cinema would be completely different today without Snow White — one of the most influential creative risks ever taken. It could have easily been a poison apple, but Disney's film ended up as the fairest of them all. Snow White is streaming on Disney+.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Shocked parent discovers how Disney World subtly checks kids for lice: ‘That's a creative way to disguise it'
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Business Insider
4 hours ago
- Business Insider
Disney & Comcast Finally Settle on a Price for Hulu
Disney (DIS) and Comcast's (CMCSA) NBC Universal have reached an agreement for Hulu. NBC Universal has exercised its put/call agreement that requires Disney to acquire its remaining 33% stake in Hulu, which is something Disney already wanted. Confident Investing Starts Here: Disney already paid NBC Universal $8.6 billion for its Hulu stake. Following three appraisals of the remaining value it owes for the Hulu stake, it will pay another $438.7 million to NBC Universal. This agreement is expected to close by July 24, 2025. Disney is expected to exclude the Hulu payment from its adjusted earnings per share, meaning it won't affect the company's current guidance. It will also list the payment as Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests, which will reduce its Net income attributable to Disney in its fiscal third quarter. What This Means for Hulu With this deal, Disney will take full ownership of Hulu. The streaming service was previously split three ways between Disney, Comcast, and Fox. However, Disney boosted its Hulu stake to roughly two-thirds with its $71.3 billion purchase of Twenty-First Century Fox in 2019. It then announced plans in 2023 to take full control of Hulu through a deal with Comcast. After Disney obtains Hulu, it will generate profits from all 50 million of the streaming service's subscribers. This will bring its total subscriber count to 180.7 million, including Disney+ and ESPN+. Disney will also gain the ability to freely integrate Hulu into its streaming services. DIS stock was down slightly on Tuesday while shares of CMCSA scored a slight increase. Turning to the TipRanks comparison tool, traders will see which stock analysts prefer. Disney has the better consensus rating at Strong Buy, compared to Comcast's Moderate Buy. Even so, its price target of $124.53 only offers a potential 7.67% upside, compared to CMCSA's $40.86 and 18.09% upside.