With all the uncertainty surrounding Disney‘s proposed Fox acquisition and the launch of its own Netflix rival, now is the time to buy, said Ivan Feinseth, chief investment officer of Tigress Financial Partners.
“Uncertainty is the time you want to buy, and if things work out, the stock price will be a lot higher than it is now,” Feinseth said Monday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.”
Analysts are expecting strong financials from the media giant as it heads into third-quarter earnings on Tuesday. But they will be looking for Disney executives to discuss the proposed $71.3 billionTwenty-First Century Fox acquisition, subscriber loss in traditional channels, and digital initiatives, including Disney’s own over-the-top streaming platform, which is expected to launch next year.
It’s a lot of pressure for the media giant, but Feinseth says Disney has never been better positioned for the coming challenges.
“They have cash, they have access to credit, they have stock that is starting to appreciate … so I think they probably have the strongest financial position that they’ve ever been in. I think they can pursue pretty much everything they are pursuing and even more,” Feinseth said.
Whereas Feinseth views the uncertainty as a buying opportunity, Brian Wieser, senior analyst at Pivotal Research Group, cautions streaming forward business plans could cause margin erosion for traditional media companies, such as Disney, which doesn’t look great in the short term.
“Although they probably have the right strategy for a durable multi-decade company, it’s not going to be as high revenue per subscriber, and it’s not going to be as high margin,” he added.
“Costs for content, costs for delivering content, costs for marketing are going to be much higher than they are presently,” he added.
Feinseth shrugged off those concerns, arguing subscription streaming fees as low as $8 or $9 could be a “significant revenue driver” that could compensate for sliding traditional revenue streams, especially for a company with content as strong as Disney’s.
“It is all about content; whether you are cutting the cord or skinny-ing the bundle, unless you have content, people will be staring at a blank screen. And they are the king of content,” Feinseth said.
Disney is set to report third-quarter financial results after market close on Tuesday.
