JEFFERIES: Costs at ESPN are holding back Disney (DIS)

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March 27, 2017 7:41 PM

Disney's stock price is up 7.7% this year, but Jefferies analyst John Janedis thinks that the stock will go nowhere in the next 12 months. Due to ESPN costs.

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Disney's stock price is up 7.7% this year, but Jefferies analyst John Janedis thinks that it is going nowhere over the next 12 months.

In a note sent out to clients on Monday, the analyst raised his price target for the stock from $100 to $110, a sign he believes that it is already fully valued.

The Jefferies "sports tracker" suggests that live sports hours on ESPN have peaked and leveled off at about 3,000 a year. As a result, Janedis thinks that advertising revenue growth for live sports will slow at ESPN.

The analyst notes that sports rights pose a major cost burden to ESPN, especially when more and more millennials are cutting the cord.

The 2017 NBA rights deal alone cost ESPN $1.1 billion, double from the year before. That's $600 million less on the balance sheet as a result of that one deal alone. Rights deals like the NBA account for roughly halve of ESPN's costs.

It is important to keep in mind that ESPN is just one part of Disney's empire, but according to Jefferies, it carries some serious weight.

Click here for a real-time Disney chart.

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