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Media and entertainment firm Walt Disney just reported a strong fiscal fourth quarter. Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management, which has renewed an activist campaign, may not stop.
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images
Walt Disney’s
fiscal-fourth-quarter earnings were enough to delight most shareholders, but it may take more to placate activist investor Nelson Peltz.
Walt Disney stock (ticker: DIS) climbed 6.9% on Thursday—the largest daily percentage increase since December 2020—after the media and entertainment company said it would boost cost-cutting measures by an additional $2 billion and look to reinstate the dividend.
Cost cuts were enough to fend off an activist campaign by Peltz’s Trian Fund Management earlier this year, but as Disney’s stock continued to tumble, Peltz recently renewed his attack. This time, he has the full support of former Marvel executive Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter, who entrusted his Disney stake to Trian.
Some on Wall Street expect Peltz to stay in the fight. Previous cost-cutting campaigns at Diisney were quickly forgotten.
“Keep in mind that when Peltz was charging last winter, DIS ran the same play,” wrote Don Bilson, event-driven analyst at Gordon Haskett, in a research report. “Those gains quickly disappeared but that came after Peltz had backed off, and it bought the company some time.”
Now, with Peltz more emboldened by Perlmutter’s backing, it’s thought that he wants more than the one board seat he sought in his first Disney campaign. The nomination window for Disney’s board opens next month. Trian declined to comment on its plans. Disney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Write to Carleton English at [email protected]
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