“We’ve Always Been on the Offensive”: Disney Stock (NYSE:DIS) Slips Despite Plans to Fight Epic Universe

Entertainment giant Disney (DIS) puts a lot into its parks. That is actually where a lot of Disney’s fortunes got their start, after all. And with the rise of competing movies and parks like Comcast’s (CMCSA) Epic Universe, Disney is not taking all this competition lightly. In fact, it recently offered up something of a battle plan to effectively take on the new parks. Investors proved skeptical, though, and sent shares slipping in Monday afternoon’s trading.

One of the biggest features of that new plan is an international expansion. Disney is poised to open a new park in Abu Dhabi, reports note, and that will be a huge deal, cracking open a major market and opening up a field that has been previously underrepresented. Disney representatives pointed out that Abu Dhabi is, roughly, a four-hour plane ride from about one-third of the world’s population, which makes it an excellent potential venue for new customers.

But perhaps the oddest part of the plan is that there really is no plan at all. Disney has a long-range plan, noted representatives, and is not based on what the competition does. “If we just go back five or 10 years and you think about what’s happened at Walt Disney World, we’ve always been on the offensive. You’ll never find us in a defensive position.”

Big Guy Hits Waterslide. Hard.

But with Disney’s impressive power in rides comes a certain amount of risk. Reports noted a 334 pound man recently decided to tackle a waterslide at a Disney park: the Downhill Double Dipper. The man, Eugene Strickland, subsequently suffered “catastrophic injuries” after the ride, and is suing Disney for $50,000 in damages.

The suit will likely be tough for Strickland to win, though, as reports noted that he was 30 pounds over the ride’s weight limit when he went down the slide in question. Reports note that Strickland “…became momentarily airborne” on the slide, and thus fell onto the slide’s hard plastic surface hard enough to cause injury. The lawsuit points to the waterslide’s design as well as its “exhilarating speeds” as problems, but then, that would kind of be the point, would it not? Reports also note it was unclear whether or not Strickland was warned at some point about the weight limit.

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 9.99% rally in its share price over the past year, the average DIS price target of $123.56 per share implies 9.71% upside potential.

See more DIS analyst ratings

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