Should You Pick Disney Stock Over Its Media Rivals?

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Walt Disney (DIS) is priced at 23.9 times earnings, giving it the highest P/E in a peer group of Netflix, Comcast, Fox, and Live Nation, among those whose profits can be compared. Yet Disney ranks fourth of five on revenue growth, sitting ahead only of Comcast. So what does that higher price buy you?

Disney Grows Slower Than Netflix On Thinner Margins

Netflix highlights this gap most sharply. Over its last four reported quarters, Disney grew revenue 4.6%, while Netflix grew 14.7% over its own last four. The streaming rival also kept 31.3% of its sales as operating profit, compared with 15.2% at Disney. Yet Netflix trades at 17.6 times earnings, a multiple helped by one quarter: in the three months to March 2026, its $5.28 billion of net income exceeded its $3.96 billion of operating income. Even so, you pay more at Disney for slower growth and a lower margin.

The rest of the group does not change that picture. The one peer with both a lower P/E and slower revenue growth than Disney is Comcast, which trades at 7.8 times earnings on revenue that barely moved. Live Nation’s P/E is not comparable, because the company lost money in two of its last four quarters.

Management Says Growth Comes From Parks And Streaming

Disney operates a broader business than Netflix. On the August 5, 2026 call, management said the company’s growth drivers right now are Experiences and streaming. The Experiences segment runs Disney’s parks, Disney Cruise Line and its consumer products business. That division brought in $36.2 billion of revenue in fiscal 2025, up 5.9% from the year before.

Both businesses posted a strong fiscal Q3 2026. Experiences revenue reached $10 billion, marking a record for the segment and 10% above a year earlier. For the same quarter, management said the streaming business earned a 13% operating margin.

The company as a whole had a stronger quarter too, with Disney’s reported operating margin rising to 18.9% in fiscal Q3 2026 from 15.4% a year earlier. That is one quarter, and Disney’s higher P/E appears to assume that quarters like it become the norm.

What Disney Has Promised For Fiscal 2026 And 2027

On the August call, management reiterated the outlook it gave in May: 12% growth in adjusted earnings per share for fiscal 2026 and double-digit growth for fiscal 2027, both excluding the 53rd week. Both are forecasts on management’s own adjusted measure, not reported results. The 23.9 P/E above uses reported profit: in fiscal Q3 2026, Disney earned $2.06 a share on the adjusted measure, against $1.51 reported.

One risk management named is in Asia. Consumers at Disney’s parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong were weaker in fiscal Q3 2026, management said, and that weakness was continuing into the fourth quarter.

At today’s price, you are paying for Disney to keep turning its parks and streaming into profit growth faster than its sales growth. One quarter’s margin supports that so far, while the company’s revenue growth still trails most of the group. When Disney reports on November 17, 2026, its adjusted earnings growth for fiscal 2026 against its own forecast is the number to watch.

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