“Freebies, Discounts and Sweepstakes” Help Keep Disney+ Subscribers; Disney Stock (NYSE:DIS) Notches Up

So things have been looking reasonably good for entertainment giant Disney (DIS) recently. It has the top movie in the United States right now with the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch. The stink of Snow White‘s failure is finally departing. And now, Disney rolled out a set of new “perks” designed to keep Disney+ subscribers from becoming churn statistics or streaming nomads. That gave investors reason to cheer as well, and shares notched up fractionally in the closing minutes of Friday’s trading.

Disney knows that there are a lot of options out there when it comes to streaming, and this growing diffusion is actually starting to hurt the entire streaming concept. So rather than take its chances with an audience that gets bored easily and goes off in search of new content elsewhere once the old content has run out, Disney is offering up new “perks,” as some put it, to keep Disney viewers in the fold.

The United States gets first go with the Disney Plus Perks program, including discounts for merchandise from places like Funko (FNKO), a six-month DashPass membership with DoorDash (DASH), and more. And, next week, Hulu will have its own loyalty program scheme in place that includes a range of companies offering discounts, and new perks stepping in over the course of the summer.

Disney Adults Disappointed by Budget Airlines

Meanwhile, the so-called Disney adult is apparently getting fed up with budget airlines, and is potentially posing a problem for Disney itself. While just getting to a Disney park can be a challenge, depending on where you live, the budget airlines that represented a great way to save cash while traveling are letting down their passengers.

The problem seems to be that the budget airlines are having trouble keeping up with their larger counterparts, who are reducing fares to try and take advantage of what passenger base there is left. Many of those airlines are also upgrading their planes to take advantage of the wealthy passenger, but planes need to be filled, and thus, cheaper fares are often a go-to. Thus, the Disney adult is paying about what they would pay elsewhere for service that truly is “budget.”

Is Disney Stock a Buy or Hold?

Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on DIS stock based on 14 Buys and four Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 7.8% rally in its share price over the past year, the average DIS price target of $123.56 per share implies 9.27% upside potential.

See more DIS analyst ratings

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