Layoffs aren’t just for technology companies right now. Disney (DIS) has begun the second round of a projected three rounds of job cuts that will add up to a total reduction of 7,000 employees this year.
The rally on February 15 sure looked like a speculative blowout of the kind that often signals a market top. For me, it was the last straw and I’m selling into the rally. This post tells you what I’m selling and how I arrived at these decisions. But first, a few words on Wednesday’s move.
Of course, there’s nothing even vaguely normal about a day when a stock falls 43% and takes much of the market with it.Snap’s (SNAP) plunge did take some surprising candidates along for the ride. Tesla (TSLA) dropped 6.93% on yet more bad news on production in its Shanghai factory. Disney (DIS) fell 4.01% just because. SentinelOne (S) was lower by 8.11% since everyone knows that cybersecurity stocks are just a fad.
But on balance, on the green side (and yes, there was a green side to the market) the market did what markets are supposed to do in the face of bad news and an increase in fear.
In my weekend Saturday Night Quarterback I said that this week would, probably, answer the question of whether Friday’s big bounce was just a bounce, the start of a buy on the dip rally, or even a bear market rally with a bit of staying power. Two days into the week I think the market action is moving in favor of a bear market rally, one of those often quite powerful upside moves that punctuate extended bear markets.
In this post let me take another step back to look at the one of the larger economic forces revealed by the Netflix miss. I’d argue that the Nexflix miss should put pricing power and questions of what price increases will hurt demand up near the top of your stock picking check list. Especially since the streaming service’ loss of 200,000 subscribers this quarter and the ported loss of 2 million subscribers next quarter qualifies as just the first shoe to drop.
Shares of Netflix (NFLX), fell 25.73% today, April 19, in after-hours trading after the company announced first quarter earnings. (In regular trading the shares had gained 3.23%.) The stock was already down 42% for 2022 before today’s after-hours plunge. The bad news: In the first quarter of 2022 Netflix (NFLX) lost 200,000 subscribers. That was a bit short of the company’s guidance for the addition of 2.5 million subscribers for the quarter. And to put a cherry on top of the bad news in the company’s earnings report, Netflix forecast that it would lose another 2 million subscribers in the second quarter of 2022.
So much for fears the Disney (DIS) would follow the disappointing course plotted by Netflix (NFLX) and report disappointing numbers for new subscriptions to its Disney Plus streaming service. For the December quarter, the company’s first quarter of fiscal 2022, Disney Plus added 11.8 million subscribers, easily beating analyst projections for 7.3 million new subscribers.
Take a look at Peloton Interactive (PTON) and Netflix (NFLX) just in case you need a reminder of one of the essential characteristics of this stock market. One that makes it so hard to tell where the market as a whole is going, and what individual stocks are headed up or down (and often down big time.) What growth rate should an investor use in trying to value the stock? Who knows? Which is exactly the point and not a problem limited to Peloton in this economy. I’ve found a handful of stocks with reliable internal growth stories that make them great buy-on-the-dip candidates for over performance in the second half of 2022. I’m making three of those stocks–Apple (AAPL), Disney (DIS), and Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG)–my last 3 picks for my Special Report
After a huge rally like we’re had this year, it’s easy to fall into one of the most common buy on the dip traps. Just because a stock is cheaper than it was, it’s not necessarily a bargain. There’s nothing that says a stock has to return to its previous price after a dip. And especially that it has to return to that former price on your schedule. Let me use Disney (DIS), one of the stocks I’m tracking in my Dip-O-Meter, as an example.
The Disney July 16 Call Options (strike price $170) are up another 17.98% today, May 25, as of 1:30 p.m. New York time to $9.91. I’m going to make my profit in this option position today ahead of the potential volatility later this week ahead of Friday’s big inflation data release. I bought these options back on May 17 at $7.17 a contract. I’m closing the position with a 32.6% gain.
Last night I said that I’d buy the Disney Call Options for July 16 at either the $170 or $175 strike price. On Friday, I noted that the spread between the two options seemed especially large at 38.4% and that I’d wait for Monday trading to give me more of a clue on which option to prefer. Today I’m going with the $170 July 16 Call Options (DIS210716C00170000) because with today’s drop to $170.01 they remain slightly in the money and I think they’re more likely to give me a significant gain during the life of the option.
Shares of Disney (DIS) dropped like a stone when the company reported after the close on May 13 that subscriptions to its Disney+ streaming service fell short of Wall Street projections for the March quarter. The shares closed at $178.37 on May 13 before the report and then opened the next morning at $169.57. They recovered some ground during the day and closed at $173.70 on Friday, May 14, down another 2.60% on the day. I’ve been arguing recently and repeatedly that I think Disney is one of the best stocks to own for a post-vaccine recovery economy. Sure, the subscription gains for Disney+ are likely to slow now that we’re not all locked in our homes and going stir-crazy. But the company’s most profitable unit–the big entertainment parks have been just about shut down during the pandemic and the California parks just started to reopen at the very end of April. I see the drop on the March quarter results as a substantial buying opportunity.
