Here's Why Walt Disney (DIS) Stock Is Up Today

Walt Disney (DIS) stock is higher in midday trading on Tuesday, amid a new show with Vice Media on A+E and a reported $200 million investment in the media company.
By Rachel Graf ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) - Get Report stock is rising by 0.76% to $115.92 in midday trading on Tuesday, after announcing a new show with Vice Media on A+E Networks, and reports of a $200 million investment in the company. 

A+E Networks, co-owned by Hearst and Disney, has announced that Vice will take over its H2 channel to launch the cable network "Viceland" in early 2016. 

Viceland will be distributed to roughly 70 million homes, and will feature hundreds of hours of programming developed in-house by Vice. Oscar-winning writer and director Spike Jonze is overseeing the channel's development. 

As part of the deal, Disney and Hearst are boosting their investment in a new media company targeting a younger demographic that favors online content over the traditional cable package, Bloomberg reports.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Separately, Disney is investing $200 million in Vice, sources told the Financial Times. 

Additionally, on Thursday Disney will report financial results for the 2015 fourth quarter. Analysts have forecast for earnings of $1.14 per share on revenue of $13.55 billion, above last year's earnings of 86 cents per diluted share on revenue of $12.48 billion.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates DISNEY (WALT) CO as a Buy with a ratings score of A-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

We rate DISNEY (WALT) CO (DIS) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its growth in earnings per share, increase in net income, revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and notable return on equity. We feel its strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow.

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

  • DISNEY (WALT) CO has improved earnings per share by 13.3% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, DISNEY (WALT) CO increased its bottom line by earning $4.25 versus $3.38 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($5.09 versus $4.25).
  • The company, on the basis of net income growth from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly outperformed against the S&P 500 and exceeded that of the Media industry average. The net income increased by 10.6% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $2,245.00 million to $2,483.00 million.
  • Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 5.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 5.1%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
  • The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.33, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Although the company had a strong debt-to-equity ratio, its quick ratio of 0.84 is somewhat weak and could be cause for future problems.
  • The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. Compared to other companies in the Media industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, DISNEY (WALT) CO has underperformed in comparison with the industry average, but has exceeded that of the S&P 500.
  • You can view the full analysis from the report here: DIS
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