The Walt Disney Company is one of the best-known and best-loved names in the entertainment business. Founded in Hollywood in 1923 by brothers Walt and Roy Disney, the animation studio has grown to become a highly diversified and immensely profitable giant, offering streaming services, feature films, amusement parks, and cable television networks.
Mostly staffed by family members in its earliest years, the brothers originally moved to California to aid Roy’s recovery from tuberculosis. In 1928, they had their first major success with ‘Steamboat Willy’, a silent animated short featuring the now ubiquitous Mickey Mouse character. In the 1940s, Disney’s fortunes turned sharply for the worse, with film releases such as ‘Fantasia’ losing money, threatening the company with bankruptcy. A major strike in 1941 and finally the military occupation of their studio in 1941 marked the low point of Disney’s fortunes.
Out of this crisis, WWII offered an opportunity for survival to the struggling company, which converted all of their resources to producing propaganda films for the American government. This saved Disney and set the stage for their rapid expansion in the 1950s and 60s, culminating in the 1955 opening of ‘Disneyland’ in California. This iconic development quickly became, and remains to this day, the most visited amusement park in the world.
In 1957, Disney’s IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, trading at a price of $13.88, took the company public, marking another high point in Disney’s growth. Disney developed mainly by acquisition in the later 20th century, acquiring major entertainment names such as Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm. In the last decade, the Disney+ streaming service has become the latest focus of the company with over 100 million users. The company faces fierce competition in all of its operating segments and has suffered from the closure of theme parks and movie theatres in 2020, but it remains a renowned and influential brand around the world. Disney is a very popular stock with institutional investors who hold a large portion of the company, with Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street being the largest investors.
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Traditionally, Disney has paid quite considerable dividends on a semi-annual basis. The last such dividend was paid in 2019, before being temporarily suspended due to a loss of revenue during global lockdowns. There are currently no indications of when the dividend, which is entirely discretionary, will resume.
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