If You Invested $1,000 In Walt Disney Stock One Year Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Now

Investors who have owned stocks in the past year have generally experienced some big gains. In fact, the SPDR S&P 500 SPY total return over the past 12 months is 55.8%. But there is no question some big-name stocks performed better than others along the way.

Disney’s Big Run: One company that has been a decent investment in the past year has been Walt Disney Co DIS.

Disney’s theme parks, cruise lines and TV and movie studio businesses experienced a near worst-case scenario when the COVID-19 pandemic occurred in early 2020. Vacation travel demand fell to nearly 0%, and Disney was forced to close its parks and suspend its cruises. However, optimism about the ongoing vaccine rollout has investors feeling bullish on the potential for a surge in summer travel in 2021 due to pent-up demand.

Fortunately for Disney investors, the pandemic coincided almost perfectly with the launch of the Disney+ streaming platform. Customers stuck at home with nothing to do but watch TV subscribed to Disney+ in droves in 2020, and the platform now has more than 100 million subscribers less than a year and a half after its November 2019 launch. In fact, Disney is so confident in its subscriber growth that it recently raised the monthly price of Disney+ for U.S. subscribers from $6.99 to $7.99.

See also: How to Buy Disney Stock

In 2019, Disney generated $6.26 in EPS on $69.5 billion in revenue. In 2020, those numbers plummeted to a $1.57 EPS loss on just $65.3 billion in revenue.

At the beginning of 2020, Disney shares were trading at around $146. By the beginning of March, the stock had dropped to around $119 after news of the virus spreading in China prompted concerns about a U.S. pandemic. On March 16, Disney closed all its theme parks around the world. The stock ultimately bottomed at $79.07 just two days later.

By the time Walt Disney Word reopened at 25% capacity in July, Disney shares were back up to around $113.

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Disney In 2021, Beyond: Disney shares hit new all-time highs above $160 in December and ultimately peaked at $203.02 in March 2021 ahead of the planned reopening of Disneyland in California on April 31.

Disney investors who bought one year ago and held on have generated a nice return on their investment. In fact, $1,000 in Disney stock bought on March 31, 2020, would be worth about $1,905 today, assuming reinvested dividends.

Looking ahead, analysts are expecting Disney's stock to once again hit new highs in the next 12 months. The average price target among the 24 analysts covering the stock is $217.50, suggesting 15.6% upside from current levels.