Last year, Walt Disney Company (DIS) stock fell to its lowest level since 2014. While the shares recovered from those depths and eked out a 4% gain on the year, its returns trailed that of the S&P 500 Index ($SPX) by a massive 20 percentage points over the course of 2023.
From disappointing box office releases to continued losses in the streaming business and a proxy battle with activist investor Nelson Peltz, Disney was mostly in the news for the wrong reasons last year. Disney’s underperformance wasn’t limited to 2023 alone, though - the stock's returns have trailed that of the S&P 500 over the last 3 years, 5 years, and 10 years. That’s not the kind of performance that investors would generally associate with a company like Disney, which is among the most iconic global brands and is the proverbial “cradle to grave” business – offering something to every age group.
