Walt Disney Co (DIS)

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Disney (DIS) Earnings Create Options Frenzy
By: Schaeffer's Investment Research | February 9, 2023

• Disney reported fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue last night

• Options volume is running at nine times intraday average

Options traders are taking aim at Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS), after the blue chip's better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter earnings report. The stock is up 4.3% to trade at $116.61 at last check, boosting the broader market in the process.

In the first half hour of trading, 84,000 calls and 37,000 puts have exchanged hands, volume that's nine times the intraday average. Most popular by far is the weekly 2/10 120-strike call, followed by 117-strike call in the same series, with new positions being opened at the latter.

In the first earnings report since the return of Bob Iger to his role as CEO in November, Disney reported earnings of 99 cents per share on revenue of $23.51 billion, both of which beat analysts' expectations. A recent price hike in Disney's streaming services likely weighed on the results, but was offset by significant year-on-year growth in its theme park unit.

The company also joined a growing list of company's announcing job cuts, with 7,000 jobs nixed as part of a restructuring plan to save $5.5 billion and make Disney+ more profitable.

The stock has received at least six price-target hikes following the report, the highest coming from Wells Fargo, to $141 from $125. DIS is now up 38.6% off its Dec. 28 two-year lows of $84.07. A trendline to monitor is the shares' 320-day moving average, which is so far capping today's rally and has not been toppled on a closing basis since November 2021.

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