In this article we will take a look at the 5 travel stocks to buy right now. For a detailed analysis of the travel industry, go directly to 10 Best Travel Stocks to Buy Right Now.
5. The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 144
The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) is a California-based entertainment firm. Disney operates many theme parks and hotels but also has stakes in the mass media, consumer product and cruise line businesses. The company was founded in 1923 and is placed fifth on our list of 10 travel stocks to buy right now as COVID-19 restrictions ease and public places reopen following a difficult 2020. Disney has a market cap of more than $341 billion and posted more than $65 billion in revenue in October 2020.
On April 21, Disney announced that it had signed a deal with Sony Pictures to bring the Marvel film series on Disney streaming platforms. Media reports indicate that the deal is worth hundreds of millions of dollars but the official price has not been disclosed yet. On April 16, investment bank UBS forecast growing earnings for Disney’s theme parks and streaming services, and rated the company stock Buy with a price target of $215.
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, 144 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $16 billion in the firm, up from 112 in the preceding quarter worth $8 billion.
Our calculations show that Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) ranks 11th in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds.
Harding Loevner, in their Q4 2020 investor letter, mentioned Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS). Here is what Harding Loevner has to say about Walt Disney in their Q4 2020 investor letter:
“One of the original constituents of the Nifty Fifty holds a place in our portfolio today. When we bought Disney three years ago, we wrote that “we view Disney theme parks in the US, Europe, and China as resistant to online substitution.” We did not reckon on a pandemic, which closed all of them, and sent all of usto our couches. Disney, however, wasready for us, brilliantly illustrating the importance of management foresight and change management. Or, as Louis Pasteur said, “chance favors the prepared mind.”
A century after its founding in 1923, Disney is in the middle of a bold shift from its legacy media networks & entertainment model—with cable TV, theme parks, and theater films dominating its earnings—to a direct-to-consumer streaming media model. The keys to Disney’s transition: matchless storytelling, coupled with financial strength. The company reliably creates content that people all over the world are eager to consume. It also hastened spending on original content to attract subscribers to its new streaming platform. These factors have allowed Disney to weather the pandemic having expanded its direct engagement with customers. Such connections yield a rich harvest of insights used to customize offerings on a mass scale, reinforcing that engagement in a virtuous circle and thereby raising the lifetime value of each customer. Subscribers to Disney+ reached 86.8 million one year after launch, compared to the 60 – 90 million management projected to reach in 2024. To be sure, Netflix, Apple, and Amazon remain formidable competitors in new-era streaming entertainment (mind what we said about everyone standing up at once), but there’s fight left in this old dog.”
