Text size
These reports, excerpted and edited by Barron’s, were issued recently by investment and research firms. The reports are a sampling of analysts’ thinking; they should not be considered the views or recommendations of Barron’s.
Walt Disney
• DIS-NYSE
Overweight • Price $82.56 on Sept. 21
by J.P. Morgan
Walt Disney hosted a parks-focused analyst meeting at Walt Disney World, where speakers included CEO Bob Iger, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Chairman Josh D’Amaro, and ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro, as well as a number of other executives. We appreciated the breadth of content and detail on the DPEP business, and agree that there is a long runway going forward.
On the stock, we have found investors mostly on the sidelines this year as the company works to define its strategic future, but like shares at this level and expect in the next six to 12 months that major questions around Hulu, an ESPN investment, and a linear sale (or not) will be answered, which should give investors more confidence in long-term value creation at the company.
While Iger did not address the pending resumption of the dividend directly, his closing comments seemed to imply that there is still room for shareholder returns even under a heavier capital-expenditure investment level.
We remain Overweight with a $125 target, though we recognize it could take a couple of quarters before we have better clarity into the company’s direction and shares begin to work.
Cisco Systems
• CSCO-Nasdaq
Outperform • Price $55.50 on Sept. 21
by Evercore ISI
Cisco announced its intention to acquire
Splunk
for $28 billion. Cisco noted several key points related to the deal:
1) The deal integrates two leaders with complimentary capabilities in AI, security, and full stack observability—Cisco can offer end-to-end security solutions from threat…
..
