Here's the News That Made Disney’s Stock Price RISE

Disney’s third quarter earnings call revealed a lot of information about the company.

Burbank Disney Company Headquarters ©️LA Times

We got an update on overall earnings, the Park Pass Reservation system, Genie+, and more. One topic that was covered in depth was Disney+ and its upcoming addition of advertisements on the service. And, it seems that the results of the call has helped The Walt Disney Company’s stock.

Disney’s stock rose up more than the broader market on Thursday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This comes after Wednesday’s earnings call, which revealed that Disney+ beat the Wall Street estimates by adding 14.4 million subscribers during the 3rd quarter.

©Disney

Disney+ now has 152.1 million subscribers, and that combined with Hulu and ESPN+ brings the total to 221 million overall. Disney also revealed the price and date for when its ad-tier subscription will go into effect, as well as when its tier without ads will get a price hike.

Investors seemed satisfied with these updates on the streaming service — Guggenheim analyst Michael Morris upgraded his rating on Disney shares to “buy” from “neutral” and his price target went up $35 to $145.

©Disney

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Morris said that “significant price increases across the domestic streaming portfolio effective Dec. 8 were ahead of our expectations and lean into a strong price-value relationship and flexibility from an ad-tier launch.”

Other analysts also followed suit, like Bank of America’s team, which kept its “buy” rating and increased its price target from $122 to $144, CFRA Research, which kept a “hold” rating buy raised the price target from $110 to $130, and Goldman Sachs, which also has a “buy” rating, moved the price target up $10 to $140.

However, other Wall Street experts did reduce their forecasts, like Credit Suisse analyst Douglas Mitchelson, who cut his Disney stock price target by $13, down to $157. And, Cowen’s Doug Creutz said that the upcoming price increases for the streaming services might “ruin” positive trends.

If you missed it, Disney+ is bringing an ad-tier to the streaming service on December 8th, 2022. This will be called “Disney+ Basic” and cost $7.99 a month. The tier of Disney+ with no ads will now be called “Disney+ Premium” and cost $10.99 a month, which is a 38% increase from what the price is right now.

These price increases will also affect Disney+ bundles with other services like Hulu and ESPN+, which you can read more about right here.