April has been a choppy month for stocks. But while some have recovered strongly, others are still down – and that’s where I think the opportunities are.

BP

Shares in FTSE 100 oil company BP (LSE:BP) fell 4% as the company’s earnings for the first quarter of 2025 disappointed investors. But there are also clear reasons for optimism.

Things have unraveled somewhat for the oil price in the last month. The prospect of increased supply from the US and OPEC+ is being met with weaker demand and a rising risk of recession.

That’s not good for BP. But I don’t think the long-term demand outlook for oil has changed in a meaningful way and the time to consider buying this type of stock is when things look bad.

Source: Trading Economics

The latest share buyback might be towards the lower end of expectations, but the dividend yield is almost 7%. And there’s now a lot of scope for oil prices to go higher.

JD Wetherspoon

It’s easy to see why the JD Wetherspoon (LSE:JDW) share price has been struggling recently. Increased costs are looking like a big challenge for the hospitality sector in general.

There are, however, some reasons to be positive. The latest data from the CGA RSM Hospitality Business Tracker indicates pub sales climbed 3.6% in March on a like-for-like basis. 

That doesn’t sound like much, but both restaurants and bars saw sales decline. And I think JD Wetherspoon’s scale and focus on customer value makes it the best in the pub industry.

If the trend of pubs outperforming other parts of the hospitality sector continues, the company could surprise people. As a result, I think it’s worth considering at today’s prices.

Disney

I’ll be interested to see what happens when Disney (NYSE:DIS) reports earnings next week. US economic data has been weak recently and this could be a risk for the company.  

A decline in tourism might mean fewer visitors to its theme parks. And in its previous update, the firm reported a decline in the subscriber base for its streaming services. 

Over the long term, however, I think things look much more positive. Disney has some outstanding intellectual property and this should be extremely valuable over time. 

Created at TradingView

On the subject of those assets, the stock is trading at an unusually low price-to-book (P/B) ratio. Things might get worse in the short term, but this could be a good time for long-term investors to consider buying. 

When?

The oil price recovering from its recent fall could push BP’s profits higher. If that happens, I expect investors to do well. 

Sales at JD Wetherspoon might also grow more than some people are expecting. And that could help offset the increasing costs the company is facing.

Disney’s intellectual property is second to none. So while a recession might not be good for the company, I think the long-term picture is much brighter.

I don’t know when share prices are going to pick up, but waiting for the next bull market to start is risky. Instead, I think investors should look for stocks to consider buying now.

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All three have been outstanding investments over the last 10 years. The reason for this is they all have competitive advantages that make them extremely difficult to disrupt. 

I think that’s a winning formula for investors. And while I’m not going to risk my entire net worth on just three businesses, I’d look for something similar if I had to do something like this.

Diageo

Top of my list would be Diageo (LSE:DGE). The business has a leading position in a growing industry and I think its scale is going to make it very difficult to disrupt.

The most vulnerable part of the firm’s portfolio might be gin. Barriers to entry are low and the likes of Brad Pitt, James May, and Ozzy Osbourne have all launched products in recent years.

Diageo however, can buy smaller brands before they become major threats. In doing so it adds value by expanding their distribution – as it did in 2020 with the gin created by Ryan Reynolds.

The competitive risk is real, but the barriers to achieving Diageo’s scale are high. That’s why it’s one of the stocks I’d buy if I was only able to choose three stocks to buy going forward.

Disney

Disney‘s (NYSE:DIS) something of a business in transition. But I think the company’s assets are second to none and there are clear reasons for investors to be positive about the future.

Most obviously, the firm’s direct-to-consumer division has started turning a profit earlier than expected. The shift to streaming has been bumpy, but the most recent results are encouraging. 

Disney’s found itself involved in political controversy over the last few years. I don’t like this at all and see the possibility of it continuing as one of the main threats to the company’s brand.

Nonetheless, the business keeps doing well at the box office and its strong franchises put it in an exceptionally powerful position. That’s why I’d choose the stock as one of my top three.

JD Wetherspoon

Nick Sleep identified CostCo because of its relentless focus on customer value. This has been a powerful force for investors and I think JD Wetherspoon (LSE:JDW) has something similar. 

Maintaining this is likely to be challenging. Increases in the National Living Wage are likely to mean the firm has to work hard to stay profitable without undermining its offer to customers.

Nonetheless, I think Wetherspoon’s has a genuine advantage over its rivals. Unlike its rivals, when the government reduced VAT during Covid-19, the business cut prices to pass this on.

That should give the firm some headroom to raise prices while remaining significantly cheaper than its rivals. And that’s a competitive position I’d be willing to bet on. 

Investing in quality

Diageo, Disney, and JD Wetherspoon all have a place in my portfolio. And if I could only buy three stocks, they’re the ones I’d choose. 

All three have competitive advantages that I think give them strong long-term prospects. From my perspective, that’s what matters most when it comes to finding companies to invest in.

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Recent volatility

Nelson Peltz, a famous activist investor, has a stake in Disney. He has been pushing for his fund to get two seats on Disney’s board of directors. This would have allowed him to push for more aggressive changes to the business. He feels this is needed in order to help the business grow.

One of the world’s richest men, Musk tweeted he’d invest in Disney if Peltz was appointed. I do have to take this with a pinch of salt, as Disney stopped advertising on his social media platform X. Musk has clashed with the current CEO, Bob Iger, so his claim to invest if Peltz had a seat at the table seems a bit of a personal vendetta.

Last night (3 April), the shareholders voted against his push to give him the seats. Rather, they favoured the turnaround plan of Bob Iger. This was laid out about a year ago, involving large scale cost-cutting in order to make the business more efficient and profitable.

Throughout the past couple of weeks, the share price has been very choppy, as investors tried to understand the impact of the vote outcome. I see Peltz as a key risk going forward, as I doubt that he’ll simply roll over. His plans are more radical than the current turnaround strategy, but I feel they go too far and would be a negative for the stock in the long run.

The plan’s working

The strategy to get Disney back to where it was years ago is starting to pay off.

For example, the cost-cutting is really ramping up. In the latest quarterly earnings report, it stated that $500m was saved during the period. Further, management said: “We are on track to meet or exceed our $7.5bn annualized savings target by the end of fiscal 2024”.

This is a large positive, as the shedding of such expenses highlights there was a large amount of unnecessary spending going on.

The other side of the coin is growth. Income before tax for the quarter was $2.87bn, up 62% from the same quarter the year before. I think the company can continue to push further here. When I add up higher income and lower expenses, it’s a natural recipe for a higher share price.

The share price is up 18% over the past year. But at $119, it’s still a long way back from levels above $175 it traded at in 2021. Therefore, I think there’s plenty of scope for this to continue to rally. I’m thinking about adding this to my portfolio.

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Why is Disney stock struggling?

According to TV audience tracking firm Nielsen, an inflection point was reached in July in the consumption of entertainment in the US.

As the chart above illustrates, the combined share of daily broadcast and cable TV viewership in the US was 49.6%. This was the first time this figure has ever dropped below 50%. Meanwhile, the use of subscription streaming services such as Netflix, via a TV, reached a record high of 38.7%.

At a fundamental level, this is the issue. Disney is struggling to convince investors that its transition from cable to streaming will ultimately prove successful. Its operating expenses are rising as it spends more on content while its profits are falling.

Breaking up?

Recently, CEO Bob Iger earmarked three Disney businesses to drive growth in future years. These are its content studios, the amusement parks, and streaming (Disney+). Everything else on the linear TV side, it seems, could be sold off, including broadcast network ABC and ESPN.

At first glance, a simplified company structure makes sense to me, but it would come with risks. After all, the traditional networks, while in overall structural decline, are still throwing off cash that Disney needs to invest in its streaming service, which remains unprofitable.

In that sense, it reminds me a little of the tobacco industry. I suspect these companies would prefer to divest the cigarettes from the less controversial vaping products. But the cigarettes still drive the profits, so the economics just don’t allow for a separation.

It’s a similar story with UK broadcaster ITV. Its legacy terrestrial business (built on adverts) is in long-term decline while its streaming service, ITVX, still isn’t profitable. The shares have dropped 72% in eight years.

All this demonstrates how truly disruptive Netflix’s direct-to-consumer business model has been. And with a share price gain of 9,127% in 15 years, Netflix shows how enriching it can be to identify and back the disruptors rather than the disrupted.

My move

Of course, it isn’t all doom and gloom for the House of Mouse. After 100 years, its vast intellectual property stretches from timeless classics like Cinderella and Star Wars to Pixar’s Toy Story franchise and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yes, the studios have struggled lately, but I’m confident they’ll produce box office hits again.

Plus, the company has upped its fees for Disney+ to try and make the streaming business profitable by the end of next year. And the parks still hold their magic, at least if my young daughter’s obsession with Disney World is anything to go by.

Still, I can’t ignore the fact that Disney+ subscribers have declined in recent quarters. This is despite the firm stopping licensing agreements with third-party streaming services to keep its content exclusively on its own platform. Meanwhile, the stock currently pays no dividend.

So, as things stand, I’m not convinced enough to invest in the shares.

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A few spectacular shifts at the World Cup later, and their agent is flying them to Barcelona for talks.

How much this actually still happens is debatable, when nowadays scouts are even scouring mobile phone footage of youth games on YouTube to uncover the next Lionel Messi on the cheap.

But one aspect of the beautiful game that seemingly did fire the imagination at the Qatar World Cup was the business of football itself. Because the subsequent weeks have seen countless rumours about British clubs changing hands.

All to play for

Liverpool’s owner Fenway Sports Club, for example, is reportedly fielding offers from as many as 13 interested parties – including the Qatar Investment Authority.

And the Qataris – who already own French side Paris Saint-German – are also said to have approached North London’s Tottenham Hotspur, although that club has denied it.

Merseyside was also buzzing before Christmas about interest from Saudi Arabia – a rumour stoked by none other than the Saudi sports minister on the BBC.

It’s a similar story down the M62 at Manchester United.

UK football’s most bankable brand has been put up for sale by the US Glazer family, who’ve owned it since 2005. Even F1 legend Lewis Hamilton is said to be involved in the jostling there.

Of course, speculation about football club bids is notoriously – well – speculative. It can make Twitter gossip about AIM stocks seem sober by comparison.

But the top-flight football teams do seem to be in play currently, off the field as much as on it.

Made in Chelsea

As I said, it’s appealing to chalk all this corporate activity up to holding the World Cup on the home turf of the wealthy Middle East.

But involvement in British football clubs by the Gulf States is nothing new. And US money is buzzing around the Premier League too.

No, I suspect it was the sale by Roman Abramovitch of Chelsea last May that put the sport back on every billionaire’s radar.

Not least because Abramovich at first appears to have done very well out of his investment.

The sanctioned Russian struck a £4.25bn deal to sell Chelsea to US businessman Todd Boehly – far in excess of both expectations and the £140m the oligarch himself paid for Chelsea in 2003.

On the surface, he multiplied his money by an incredible-seeming 30 times in 19 years.

But did Abramovich really achieve sky-high returns? I don’t think so.

For starters, do the sums and it ‘only’ works out as an annualised return of 20%.

Incredible for mere mortals like you and me. But Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has done better with common stocks for many more decades.

Also, only £2.5bn of the £4.25bn specifically went on buying Abramovitch’s shares. The other £1.75bn was a commitment by Boehly to fund Chelsea’s stadium work and other programmes.

True, this may have partly been shenanigans due to the oligarch being on a financial blacklist. And indeed, Abramovich ultimately earned a return of zero – because he can’t access the proceeds.

Boehly did pay £4.25bn to get control of Chelsea, however the deal was structured.

But the reality is the US mogul would have spent billions on club infrastructure anyway, so I think the £2.5bn better reflects the actual transfer price of Chelsea.

Either way, the huge spending commitment highlights the final flaw in Abramovich’s superficially superb return on £140m.

You see, the oligarch lent well over a £1bn to Chelsea interest-free to fund his quest for silverware.

Abramovich succeeded and Chelsea was wildly successful. But its operating losses are said to have run into the hundreds of millions over the 19 years regardless!

In the relegation zone

We can better see how economically motivated investors judge football clubs by turning back to Manchester United, which has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2012.

Prior to a big price pop when the Glazers announced they were selling, Manchester United’s shares were trading at about $13. That’s less than the $14 they floated for a decade previously.

Or consider the Scottish club Celtic, which did an IPO in London in the mid-1990s. Celtic’s shares have fallen 66% since those faraway Dotcom Boom days.

Another listed super-club is Italy’s Juventus. Its shares trade for 35 euro cents. They’re down 70% since 2001.

All of which makes you think only an idiot would buy football club shares. Yet interestingly, star UK stock-picker Nick Train – definitely no dummy – owns a stake in all three clubs in his various funds.

Train believes the clubs’ unique brands and long-run media potential are undervalued.

But I believe football clubs are things you should buy when you’ve already made your money elsewhere, and you’re ready to lose it – whether you’re a billionaire or an everyday investor. 

Adjusted earnings

I say that because the economics of sports teams have many special difficulties.

Clubs need to spend ever-larger sums on the best players in order to remain competitive.

Worse, these players are commercial enterprises in their own right. They can and do negotiate their own deals for everything from merchandise to sponsorship – and plenty of that money is never seen by the club that makes them famous.

The sums can be enormous. At the extreme, David Beckham is said to have made $500m as a result of his machinations in Major League Soccer in the US, for instance.

Compare this to Disney or Netflix. They create a character, they own it, and they can flog it forever.

Mickey Mouse still makes millions – and he never asks for a pay rise.

Some actors get a lot of clout, true. But they’re interchangeable in the long run. Recall everyone who has played Batman or Spider-man over the past 30 years.

In contrast, Ronaldo is Ronaldo – you can’t replace him with a cheaper Ronaldo. And football players shelf-lives aren’t long for that matter. Just a decade or so.

At least the top teams do garner a huge slice of media income. But the financial losses for Chelsea and the dire performance of Manchester United’s shares suggest it’s not huge enough.

The smaller teams get far less – and fewer bums on seats at home games. For them the dream is to find a young Ronaldo and sell him for millions, before he has even worked his magic.

Again, really peculiar.

Imagine if tech startups similarly sold their best new products to bigger rivals to keep the lights on. There’d be no zero-to-billion-dollar stories in the markets ever again.

At least actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney paid only £2m for Welsh team Wrexham.

It seems modest enough that the income from their Netflix documentary Welcome to Wrexham might turn a profit. My guess, though, would be any spare money will still be gobbled up by the club.

Goal difference

Richard Branson once quipped that if you want to become a millionaire, become a billionaire first and then start an airline.

I guess he never thought about buying a football club.

Let the oligarchs throw money at their playthings, I say. And if you’re a fan of Manchester United, Juventus, or Celtic, by all means buy a few shares in support.

But if you want to make life-changing money investing, I’d suggest the sort of great companies we typically recommend at The Motley Fool will treat you better. Or even a global tracker fund. You can always chuck away your fortune owning a football team later – once you’ve made it!

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With that in mind, I’ve been looking for some of the best stocks to buy in December. There are a few on my list, but one in particular stands out.

The stock is The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS). The Disney share price has rallied a little recently, but it’s still down around 37% since the start of the year.

At these prices, I think that the stock is a bargain. That’s why I’m looking at buying shares for my portfolio in December.

Disney+

The company has been struggling on a couple of different fronts lately. The most significant of these, in my view, is its Disney+ service.

Disney divides its business into its Parks operations and its Media operations. The Media segment makes up around 64% of total revenues.

Disney+ accounts for around 39% of the revenues brought in by the Media segment. And this part of the business has been concerning investors lately.

According to the company’s most recent report, losses at Disney+ are increasing. While revenues increased by 8%, the segment’s losses increased from $630m to $1.4bn.

With interest rates rising, now isn’t a good time to be losing money. And I think this is what has been worrying investors and causing the Disney share price to fall.

I think, though that the fear is overdone. And I see this as a rare chance to buy Disney shares at an attractive price.

A brighter future

In my view, it’s not difficult to see why the share price has been falling. The difficulties with Disney+ have been weighing on profits.

I think, however, that there is room for optimism. Two recent things cause me to think that better times might be ahead for Disney shareholders.

The first is that the company has had a change in CEO. Bob Iger (who was previously in charge for 15 years) has returned to replace Bob Chapek.

I view this positively. I’m expecting the return of Iger to restore some of the stability to the business that had been lost as Chapek decided to shift the company’s focus to Disney+.

Furthermore, Chapek suggested recently that the peak of the losses might be in the past for Disney+. The outgoing CEO stated that he expected the operations to be profitable by 2024.

The best stock to buy in December?

There are a lot of reasons to like Disney shares. The company has a content library that I think is unmatched by any of its competitors.

I see the current difficulties as a temporary headwind to the company’s share price. If these subside in line with the management’s forecast, I think the shares look like a bargain.

That’s why I’m getting ready to buy Disney shares for my portfolio in December. It’s at the top of my list of stocks to buy.

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Three of my investments, however, aren’t like that. There are three stocks in my portfolio that I don’t anticipate selling at any price.

This is because they are the highest-quality businesses I own. So if I sold the shares, I don’t think I’d be able to replace them with an upgrade.

Disney

The first stock I’d never sell is Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS). Both the stock and the business have had a turbulent time over the past few years, but I’ve never been tempted to sell my investment.

Like any investment, Disney stock carries some risk. In my view, the biggest risk comes from the cost of continuing to create new content, which could weigh on investment returns.

I think, however, that Disney’s content library gives it a huge advantage over its competitors that offsets this risk. Furthermore, the strength of the company’s back catalogue is basically impossible for rivals to replicate.

Disney is the only stock in this list that I’m actively buying at the moment. I think that the stock is currently undervalued and I’m looking at increasing my investment in the business.

Realty Income

I also have a substantial investment in Realty Income (NYSE:O) that I don’t ever intend to sell. Instead of selling, I plan to keep reinvesting dividends to increase my passive income.

Realty Income is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that makes money by leasing retail properties. Like other REITs, it distributes its rental income in the form of dividends.

The company is exposed to risk in the form of high property prices, which is making expansion difficult. But it has navigated these challenges well before and I think it will continue to do so.

Twenty-eight years of consecutive dividend increases make the stock a Dividend Aristocrat. It also reinforces my belief that the business can perform well in any economic environment.

Berkshire Hathaway

Lastly, I own shares in Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B). This is another stock that I never anticipate selling.

The risk with this stock is that the size of the underlying business limits growth opportunities. But I think that patience will be rewarded over time.

In my view, Berkshire has a unique advantage. It uses the money it receives from insurance premiums to make investments that power its earnings.

This is a good business model, but it takes a lot of capital to make it work. Underwriting its insurance obligations requires significant cash to cover potential losses.

Berkshire’s big advantage is that it has the cash to operate in this way. Other insurance operations don’t have the same protection.

This allows Berkshire to avoid unnecessary risk and be conservative in its insurance underwriting. I think this advantage is durable and so I’m never selling the stock.

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Fundamentals

By my calculations, the increase in the Disney share price takes the company’s enterprise value to around $323bn. In order to invest in more Disney stock, I need to be confident that the company will make enough money to provide me with a satisfactory return on my investment at this price. And as Warren Buffett says, it can’t be close—the answer needs to scream at me, otherwise the stock isn’t a buy for me.

The company divides its operations into two segments. The first is its Parks, Experiences, and Products segment, which includes Disney’s theme parks, cruise lines, and resorts. The second is its Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution segment, which covers things like Disney+, ESPN, and the licensing of the company’s titles. To invest in Disney stock, I’ll need to know how much cash each of these is going to produce.

Parks

The company reported $7.23bn revenue in its Parks segment during the holiday season, compared to $3.5bn in the same quarter a year ago. Operating income also increased from a loss of $119m to a profit of $2.45bn. There’s no doubt in my mind that this is impressive, especially in a quarter featuring theme parks operating at a reduced capacity due to Omicron. 

In order to take a view on whether or not this performance justifies buying Disney stock, I need to assess two things. The first is how quickly Disney’s theme parks will return to full capacity. The second is how much income they will generate when they do. To work out whether or not Disney stock is a buy, I need to know the answers to these questions.

Streaming

Disney added just under 12m new subscribers to its Disney+ service during October, November, and December. This represents an 8.5% increase in subscribers. I think that this is clearly impressive in a quarter where the number of Netflix subscribers increased by around 4%. The company also reported an increase in average revenue per subscriber from $4.12 to $4.41. 

Currently, Disney+ is a loss-making service. Clearly, this is expected to change and the business will start producing income. As with the theme parks, there are two crucial questions for me as an investor. The first is when Disney will optimise its streaming service for profit. The second is how much cash this will produce when it does. Only once I’ve figured this out can I make an investment judgement about Disney stock.

Conclusion

I think that Disney is one of the best businesses in the world and I’m delighted to own the stock in my portfolio. During the pandemic, when the price was much lower, Disney stock screamed out at me as a buy. At current prices, though, it doesn’t. So I’m going to hold onto the shares I have for now and concentrate on my other investment opportunities.

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However, it was the read-across from Netflix that weakened the Disney share price. Netflix, the mega-cap streaming service, released its fourth-quarter earnings, which caused the stock to tank by 22%. The primary reason for the fall was the company’s weak new subscriber Q1 forecast of 2.5m. It was much lower than the 5.7m that analysts expected.

This is where Disney comes in. The company is growing its own streaming service called Disney+. So if Netflix is struggling for new subscribers, Disney+ may be too. But is a 7% fall in the Disney share price really warranted based on Netflix’s forecasts? I’m going to take a look to see if this has presented me with a buying opportunity.

The bull case

Disney has a major ingredient I look for in an investment: an economic moat. Essentially, this is a competitive advantage that makes it harder for competitors to take market share. It can also be thought of as a barrier to entry.

Disney’s economic moat comes from its characters and stories it has built over decades. There’s only one Mickey Mouse, after all. And nowadays Disney also owns brands Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar.

Before the pandemic, Disney was also able to generate a double-digit operating margin and return on its equity. These are the kinds of financial metrics I look for when investing. To me, it represents the strength of Disney’s business, derived from its economic moat.

The bear case

Disney’s business was greatly impacted by the pandemic. It generates a significant proportion of its revenue from its theme parks, which were shut down during lockdowns. The company said its wider Parks, Experiences and Products division suffered $3.5bn in lost operating income due to the closures in one quarter alone. A new strain of Covid cannot be ruled out completely, so this remains a key risk for Disney’s business.

The company is also still in recovery from the pandemic. Net income is forecast to be $5.9bn for fiscal 2022 (the 12 months to 2 October 2022). In fiscal 2019 (so pre-Covid), net income was a much higher $11bn. Analysts are attributing the lower profit guidance to a contraction of margins due to inflation and increased operating costs.

This brings me to the current valuation. Disney’s share price has fallen by 21% over one year. However, the stock is still valued on a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 34. Before the March 2020 Covid-related stock market crash, Disney was trading on a P/E of 20. Therefore, the stock still looks richly valued, even after the share price decline.

Should I buy at this Disney share price?

I do think Disney is a quality company with a strong economic moat. It’s a stock I’ve owned before, and would buy again, depending on the balance of risk-to-reward.

However today, I think there’s further downside risk in the share price. The valuation still looks rich, and profits aren’t expected to reach pre-pandemic levels until at least fiscal 2024. I’m keeping it high on my watchlist for now.

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Does the stock’s resurgence over recent weeks mean it’s now far too cheap and that there’s money to be made? Possibly. That said, there’s another company I’d be far more interested in buying right now.

Cineworld shares: Mission Impossible?

To be fair, Cineworld’s last update was actually better than I expected. Attendances had “steadily grown” over the six months to the end of 2021, no doubt boosted by the release of the long-awaited No Time to Die. The latest Spider-Man movie has also helped to improve revenue, allowing the company to generate positive cash flow again. 

The forthcoming slate of movies should build on this momentum. The new Batman film, releasing in March, Jurassic Park: Dominion, out in June, and Mission: Impossible 7, debuting in September, should be nailed-on blockbusters. The removal of Plan B restrictions in the UK, including the requirement to wear face masks, could/should prove another shot in the arm for Cineworld shares. 

But let’s be sensible. When it comes down to it, the odds of this business thriving again aren’t great. Even if Cineworld is successful in its appeal against the legal case it recently lost against Cineplex, the sheer amount of debt on the company’s books is a huge reason to steer clear.

The fact that it’s still the most heavily shorted stock on the entire UK stock market is another. Now throw in the competition it faces from streaming services. Speaking of which… 

Taking the Mickey 

If I were to buy a recovery play in the entertainment space right now, it would be US giant Disney (NYSE: DIS). Priced at a just over $200 a pop last March, the stock now changes hands for under $150. 

Reasons for this weakness include a slowing of growth at its streaming platform. Last November, Disney+ announced it had added 2.1 million subscribers in Q4 of its financial year. That’s down sharply from the 12.6 million in the previous three months.

But should investors really be surprised? Having (unintentionally) timed the launch of Disney+ perfectly to coincide with Covid-19 lockdowns, it was surely inevitable that things would slow.

Yes, a few poorly-received recent Marvel and Star Wars shows may be another factor. However, we can’t deny just how lucrative this intellectual property is and, importantly, will remain. Pixar is another jewel.

For me however, its the theme parks that make Disney a buy. If the pandemic really is to end in 2022, visitor numbers should begin to rise again as international travel bounces back. Sure, a bet on Cineworld could be more lucrative in the event of a short ‘squeeze’. However, I suspect the ride with Disney stock will be considerably less hair-raising.

High-risk stock

In sum, I’d much rather add Mickey and Co to my portfolio when markets reopen on Monday. As nice as it would have been to capture the recent jump on Cineworld shares, I’m still aiming my barge pole at the company.

This is a binary bet as I see it and the prospects for long-term investors, as opposed to nimble traders, aren’t great. 

Full-year numbers — including an update on its precarious financial position — will arrive in mid-March. 

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