A major financial update, blockbuster Marvel theatrical release, and new Pixar animated series will lead the way this month.
It’s now been more than two months since Walt Disney (DIS -0.33%) shares have been trading consistently in the triple figures. Making sure it stays above $100 — and building on its market-matching 24% gain in 2024 — will depend on its ability to continue delivering across its media empire.
February may be the shortest month of the year, but it doesn’t mean that this will be 28 days that investors can spend tapping the snooze bar. Disney has a big earnings report on the way in the week ahead. It also has another huge movie coming out and a promising new piece of animated content coming to Disney+.
There’s never a dull month when it comes to Disney. Let’s take a closer look at February’s potentially needle-moving events.
Feb. 5
Disney’s fiscal year ends in September. Most stocks have been posting their fourth-quarter numbers this earnings season, but for Disney, it will report its fiscal first-quarter results on Wednesday.
The market isn’t expecting much in terms of revenue growth at Disney. Analysts are bracing for a modest 4% step-up on the top line. The year-over-year comparisons for its media networks and theme parks should prove challenging. Wall Street pros have also been paring back their expectations from the 5% increase that they were modeling a month ago.
Image source: Disney.
It should be a different story on the bottom line. Analysts now see the House of Mouse clocking in with an adjusted profit of $1.44 a share, an 18% jump from the $1.22 a share it earned a year earlier for the same fiscal quarter. The market is still all over the place. Analysts are forecasting a first-quarter profit per share as low as $1.14 and as high as $1.58. If it’s any consolation, Disney has surpassed Wall Street profit targets consistently over the past year.
It’s not just the numbers that will move the shares. Disney may update investors on new content releases, including moving movies and TV shows, earlier or later on its calendar. Investors will want to see if Disney is making progress at its theme parks, where growth has stalled in recent reports.
There isn’t likely any news on the eventual success to CEO Bob Iger. Disney’s board expects to announce its next leader in early 2026 before Iger steps down near the end of that year. Even if there is no major news announced in Disney’s report and subsequent earnings call, it’s going to be the biggest February event for investors to monitor.
Feb. 14
It’s fitting that Disney chose Valentine’s Day as the release date of its next Marvel theatrical release. Captain America: Brave New World will hit a multiplex near you on Feb. 14. Moviegoers fell in love with Disney last year. The media giant scored the world’s three highest-grossing films that came out during the 2024 calendar year: Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Moana 2.
It’s been nine years since the last stand-alone Captain American movie came out. Just like last year, Disney had the three top box office draws in 2016. Captain America: Civil War was one of the three big Disney-produced flicks that year. Disney’s Marvel then shifted gears to telling the larger collective of Avengers stories.
The storyline shifts to a new Captain America, but fans of the franchise should continue to flock to theaters to see the latest chapter in the saga play out on the largest screen possible. It’s the first of several potential blockbusters that Disney will be putting out this year.
Feb. 19
Now that Disney+ is profitable, the power of scalability starts to take the wheel. It can’t afford to skimp on new content to retain subscribers, even with its top rival recently hiking its subscription prices.
Pixar fans are looking forward to Win or Lose later this month. It will be the first original long-form animation series put out by the computer animation studio that’s been turning heads and drawing audiences since 1995’s Toy Story redefined the genre.
This won’t be Pixar’s first foray into a long-form animation show. In December, it introduced Dream Productions, based on the Inside Out franchise. The new show doesn’t have the same benefit of an established audience, but it’s Pixar. It rarely misses when it takes a swing.
Win or Lose is about a co-ed middle school softball team looking to win the league’s championship. In an interesting twist that feeds nicely into the episodic nature of the series, every installment will feature the off-the-field life of a single player, parent, and even the umpire.
