Key Stats for Disney Stock
- Current Price: $112.52
- Target Price (Mid): ~$163
- Street Target: ~$127
- Potential Total Return: ~45%
- Annualized IRR: ~10% / year
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What Happened?
The Walt Disney Company (DIS) closed at $112.52 on October 23, 11.04% above its October 1 close of $101.33. That base was set the day shares fell 3.40%; measured from September 30, the gain is 7.3%. The run included 10 straight gains from October 2 through October 15, which a Dow Jones Data Talk headline said put Disney on pace for its longest streak since September 2013. Through October 16, Disney’s shares were up 5.4% for the month against about 0.1% for the S&P 500 on a total-return basis. The stock now sits 3.54% below its highest close of the past year.
Disney Is Paying About $60 Million a Year for Character.AI’s Engineers
Several things landed during the run, including Citi’s target raise to $140 from $135 on October 16, so no single announcement explains it. The clearest sign of where CEO Josh D’Amaro is spending came on October 12. That day, Character.AI’s parent filed for Chapter 11 with Disney as stalking-horse bidder: $20 million for a non-exclusive, perpetual license to selected intellectual property. A court filing reported by TechCrunch citing Bloomberg showed Disney also agreed to offer jobs to at least 60 Character.AI employees, most of the staff. The estimated cost is $60 million a year, plus retention awards.
The deal is not final. On October 23, 31 states and the District of Columbia objected to the proposed sale rules. They asked the court to cut Disney’s $700,000 bid fee, give rival bidders more time, and decline to approve releases Character.AI granted Disney. A hearing on the procedures is set for October 30, with bids proposed by November 20. Disney is licensing technology and hiring staff, not buying Character.AI, whose filing cited potential litigation liabilities.
CFO Hugh Johnston told the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference on September 9 that embracing technology is one of D’Amaro’s three priorities, aimed at helping Disney “increase monetization of all that great IP that we have as a company.” He said “certainly leaning into that, I think, makes a ton of sense. And in a world of AI, even more so.”
TIKR tracks 33 analysts on Disney. How many say “Buy”?
See the full breakdown of Buy, Hold, and Sell ratings on Disney, along with Wall Street’s revenue and earnings estimates, all in one place. More than 500,000 investors use TIKR to research stocks like this one. See Disney’s Analyst Ratings
Investors Paid More for an Unchanged Forecast
From September 30 to October 23, Disney’s NTM P/E on normalized earnings rose from 13.92 times to 14.88 times. Over the same stretch, analysts’ NTM normalized EPS estimate edged from $7.54 to $7.56, so the multiple accounts for nearly all of the 7.3% move. Disney still trades below the 18.61 times it carried in late September 2025.
Analysts lean bullish, with 23 Buys, 6 Outperforms, 3 Holds and 1 Sell. The $126.58 mean target sits 12.5% above the October 23 close. That mean has slipped from $133.22 a year earlier, and the highest target fell from $163 in late June to $144.
TIKR Advanced Model Analysis
- Current Price: $112.52
- Target Price (Mid): ~$163
- Potential Total Return: ~45%
- Annualized IRR: ~10% / year
This uses the mid case, measured from the $112.52 close on October 23. Reaching it would take years of earnings growth, the path Johnston described when he called Disney “an earnings compounder type of company.” The nearer risk is advertising. Johnston said added supply was pressuring streaming ad pricing, and Disney expected “a little bit of softness to continue in Q4.” On the downside, the Street’s lowest 12-month target of $86 sits 23.6% below the October 23 close.
November 17 Has to Supply the Earnings
Disney reports fiscal fourth-quarter results before the market opens on November 17. Analysts expect normalized EPS of $1.69 on revenue of $25.19 billion, for a quarter that includes an extra 53rd week. Disney has guided to double-digit adjusted EPS growth in fiscal 2027, excluding that week.
Analysts’ 8.1% normalized EPS growth estimate for fiscal 2027, to $7.50, compares against a fiscal 2026, which includes it. Disney said the extra week lifts fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS growth to about 16% from about 12%. A reaffirmed double-digit outlook would give October’s higher multiple earnings support. A cut would leave the run resting on the multiple alone.
So what is Disney stock actually worth?
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Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!
