Despite Massive 'Star Wars' Potential, Jefferies Is Still Waiting On The Sidelines Of Disney

• Shares of Walt Disney Co DIS have appreciated 14.21 percent year-to-date, while declining 10.41 percent over the past month.
• Jefferies’ John Janedis has maintained a Hold rating on the company, with a price target of $112.
• Janedis mentioned that the slowing growth in the company’s media segment, along with the impact of increases in sports rights over the next several years, could limit upside to the stock.

Analyst John Janedis said that the global box office collections for the opening weekend of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" came in at the high end of expectations. The movie generated domestic box office revenue of $238 million, with $517 million estimated globally.

Related Link: 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Heads The Biggest Box Office Weekend Of All Time

According to the Jefferies report, “Globally, Star Wars will be the second largest opening weekend, following Jurassic World, although we note Star Wars had no benefit from China where the movie opens on January 9th.”

"Star Wars'" box office strength is expected to continue into the holiday season.

On the other hand, Janedis continues to believe that “step ups in ESPN's sports rights will be $750M in F17, followed by another $280M increase in F18.”

With programming costs expected to be about 70 percent of total costs, Janedis mentioned that ESPN is likely to find it difficult to grow EBIT beyond the low single digits in FY17 and FY18.