One of Walt Disney's (DIS -0.04%) largest investors is getting jittery again. It doesn't mean that it has to end badly for the rest of the media giant's shareholders.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that activist investor Nelson Peltz is readying for a proxy battle at the next Disney shareholder meeting to gain some seats in the boardroom. If this sounds familiar, it's because we saw it start to play out earlier this year. The billionaire founding partner of Trian Fund Management would eventually pull his slate of nominees for Disney directors after CEO Bob Iger embraced some of the changes that Peltz was advocating.
Will the battle for a boardroom presence make it to the springtime annual shareholder meeting this time? Disney shares opened slightly higher on Monday following the news that broke over the weekend. It's not the only reason why Disney shareholders could come out ahead no matter how the proxy fight is resolved this time around.
Bored of directors
Peltz was frustrated with the stock's poor performance in January when he initiated his first proxy battle. The stock has only continued to lose to the market, hitting a new nine-year low last week.
Peltz is also a much larger shareholder now. Trian Fund had 6.4 million shares of Disney at the time of the first bout. It owns more than 30 million shares today.
This is less than 2% of Disney's total shares outstanding. Peltz will need more support from his fellow investors if he does nominate new directors, including himself, to have more say in the entertainment bellwether's leadership.
Iger will listen. He was willing to hear Peltz out earlier this year when his firm had a much smaller stake.
The problem is that the resolutions that appeased Peltz last time are still in place. Iger agreed to shave $5.5 billion in annual costs and steer Disney+ to profitability by the end of fiscal 2024 earlier this year. It was enough to get Peltz to stand down, and those measures are still in place. They've actually been heightened.
Iger announced that Disney plans to now "exceed" $5.5 billion in annual savings in its latest earnings call. Price hikes across Disney's ad-free streaming services kicking in this month should make Disney+ even more profitable by the end of the new fiscal year. Iger has also suggested that Disney could sell some assets, the kind of idea that often turns activist investor frowns upside down.
Disney exceeded Wall Street's profit targets in its latest quarter, and analysts see earnings more than doubling from the prior year's depressed showing when it reports fiscal fourth-quarter results next month. If Disney was the only media giant struggling right now, it would be easy to see why Peltz is frustrated, but that's not the case. The market's appetite for media stocks has been chilly as the ad market struggles, cord-cutting continues, and most streaming services remain deep in the red.
Disney has shed nearly a quarter of its value since Peltz suspended his first proxy battle in February, weeks before the showdown at the annual shareholder meeting. It's not a good look, but many of Disney's smaller peers have been hit even harder. Peltz can also blame himself, as the stock's failure this year came despite taking on some of his earlier suggestions to unlock the media giant's value.
None of this means that Peltz won't be successful in his proxy battle. It will be interesting to see if he has any new ideas this time to get Disney shares moving in the right direction again. However, the ideal storybook ending is Disney figuring it out from inside its own castle.
