On July 23, Walt Disney fell 3.1% in regular trading, trading at $92.88/share, with turnover of $315 million. The decline came amid a confluence of negative developments including a European patent injunction, layoffs across multiple divisions, and an analyst price target reduction.
InterDigital announced that a regional division of the Unified Patent Court upheld its video encoding patent and banned Disney from using the related codec in 11 European countries. This marks the second time the European court has penalized Disney over these specific video encoding formats. Disney has the right to appeal the decision.
Additionally, Disney recently cut hundreds of jobs in its television and film production divisions. Its subsidiary ESPN also commenced a new round of layoffs, with most impacted roles tied to its acquisition and integration of NFL assets including NFL Network. Meanwhile, UBS lowered its price target on Walt Disney to $133 from $138 while maintaining a Buy rating, citing expectations for Q3 EPS of $1.91 driven by experiences and streaming segments, though sports EBIT is expected to decline due to higher rights costs.
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