Walt Disney Company Stock Had Its WORST Year Since 1974

Let’s just say — 2022 was not an easy year for The Walt Disney Company.

Magic Kingdom

Although the parks were back open post-pandemic and plenty of new content was released in theaters and on Disney+, the company was suffering financially. It all came to a head when CEO Bob Chapek left the company after just two years and was replaced by his predecessor Bob Iger. The financial issues were reflected in the stock market…and the final results aren’t pretty.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Disney stock has officially had its worst year since 1974 — that’s nearly FIVE decades. How was that figured? Well, the price per share of DIS dropped 43% from January 1st to the end of December.

©Google Stocks

In 1974, Disney shares lost 54% of their value throughout the year, so it’s not quite as bad as it was back then, but this certainly doesn’t look good for the company. If you were holding out hope for the value of shares to rise dramatically when Bob Iger took the reigns again, you may be out of luck. The year’s highest value was $160.32 and the lowest was $84.07.

©Disney

So what’s going on? Well, it seems as though people are waiting to see what happens next with Disney. It’s not uncommon for stock values to take a hit when a company brings back an old CEO, according to a study from MIT. And people might be holding out on their investments until they have proof that Bob Iger will make a positive change at Disney.

©Reuters

Basically, we’ll be watching Disney stock closely in 2023 to see what happens — it largely depends on Iger and the decisions he makes. It also doesn’t help that Disney was involved in a fair amount of political controversy in 2022. Some people have lost a bit of confidence in the company.

It’s a waiting game right now, but with shake-ups on the horizon, there are bound to be some changes…whether good or bad. It’s unusual for Disney stock to be stuck below $100 per share for so long — here’s to hoping it gets a rebound in 2023.