Hedge fund heavyweight Dan Loeb, CEO of Third Point, apparently felt that he had more than enough Disney (DIS) stock last quarter.
Loeb slashed his holding by 52% in the period, to 2 million shares, worth about $310 million as of Dec. 31, Third Point disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing cited by CNBC.
Disney fell out of Loeb’s top 10 holdings with his selling in the fourth quarter, according to InsiderScore. He first acquired Disney shares in early 2020, CNBC reported, shortly after Disney launched its Disney+ streaming service.
For two years, Loeb urged Disney to build up its streaming operation, CNBC reported. The company reported 129.8 million subscribers for Disney+ as of Dec. 31, gaining 11.8 million for the quarter ended Jan. 1.
In its latest expansion plans announced last month, Disney said it was expanding the Disney+ service to several dozen more countries, including the Vatican.
Morningstar analyst Neil Macker is bullish on Disney, putting fair value at $170, compared to Tuesday’s close of $154.65.
“We believe Disney is successfully transforming its business to deal with the ongoing evolution of the media industry,” he wrote in a commentary.
“The firm’s direct-to-consumer efforts, Disney+, Hotstar, Hulu, and ESPN+ are taking over as the drivers of long-term growth as the firm transitions to a streaming future.”
That effort “will benefit from the new content being created at Disney and Fox television and film studios as well as the deep libraries at the studios,” Macker said. “We expect that Disney+ will continue to leverage this content to create a large, valuable subscriber base.”
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