Taking stock of/in Disney

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Peter Lynch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Lynch), a very successful investor and fund manager had a saying, "Invest in what you know" . Since this is a very Disney oriented board, most of the members here have some degree of local knowledge of the company.

I was wondering if any of you own (or plan to own) any stock in Disney?

Why or Why not?

[Ghoulish Delight]

I own 60 shares, purely because my parents bought 5 shares in my name when I was 10 or so and it's split a couple times since then. It appreciated greatly for the first decade or so I owned them...for the last decade it's been rather stagnant.

[wolfy999]

I own some. Bought it because I like the company at the time (over 12 years ago) and I must admit that Eisner made me a pretty penny over the years. Now it's somewhat stabilized, but I have faith!

[Alex]

I don't anymore. Now I just stick to indexes because chasing individual stocks is, for most people, a fool's enterprise. And once Disney got in the habit of holding the shareholder's meeting in remote locales, access to that wasn't worth much and now it is all available on the internet anyway.

[RStar]

I own Disney stock.:D

One share.:rolleyes:

In a frame. It was a gift........;)

[DreadPirateRoberts]

I own Disney stock.:D

One share.:rolleyes:

In a frame. It was a gift........;)

That's how Disney's housekeeper (http://www.verticalthought.org/issues/vt04/money.htm) did it

There is the true story of Walt Disney's housekeeper. Every year during the holidays Mr. Disney gave her one share of Disney company stock. She didn't make much, but she decided to save her stocks rather than just cashing them in for money. When she retired, she had over a million dollars worth of Disney stock!

[Alex]

Had to wonder if that is really a true story. First of all it is a really crappy bonus since in the late '40s Disney stock had tanked down to $3/share.

But starting from 1957 on, this is how many shares it would have taken in that year to be worth a million dollars:

No information is given on when she retired, but let's say she was getting one share of stock from the beginning in 1940 through 1970. The following is a chart, starting at year end in 1957 of how many shares it would have taken to be worth $1 million and how many she would have had.

1957 - 72,046 - 33 (2 for 1 split in 1956)
1958 - 23,391 - 34
1959 - 20,563 - 35
1960 - 35,087 - 36
1961 - 26,666 - 37
1962 - 35,087 - 38
1963 - 25,316 - 39
1964 - 21,978 - 40
1965 - 16,877 - 41
1966 - 12,618 - 42
1967 - 18,142 - 85 (2 for 1 split)
1968 - 11,764 - 86
1969 - 7,462 - 87
1970 - 7,092 - 88

1975 - 23,820 - 495 (2 for 1 in 1971 and another in 1972)

1980 - 19,512 - 500

1985 - 8,858 - 505


And is she were still getting one share every Christmas from 1940 through last year she would currently have around 12,311 shares (three more splits in '86 (4:1), '92 (4:1), and '98 (3:1)). And as of today those shares would be worth $384,718.

She may have ended up with a million dollars of Disney stock, but it wasn't by getting just one share every Christmas (unless he was giving her something other than common stock).



*Just a mindless diversion sparked by me wondering and figuring if I do the work I might as well share it.