The announcement came as movie theaters across the country remain shut to curb the spread of COVID-19
The shares of Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS) are down 2.3% at $115.40 this morning, after the company announced it would push back the release of its new "Mulan" movie indefinitely, as movie theaters across the country remain shut to curb the spread of COVID-19. Disney also delayed the release of "Avatar" and "Star Wars" for one year.
On the charts, the security is struggling to recover from its early June pullback, with resistance at the $120 region keeping at lid on the shares. And while Disney shares have getting support from the 60-day moving average over the past few weeks, the stock is still off 18.3% year-to-date.
Analysts were split toward the equity coming into today, with 10 of the 18 in coverage carrying a tepid "hold" or worse rating, while the remaining eight carried a "buy" or better. Meanwhile, the 12-month consensus price target of $122.79 is a 5.8% premium to its current perch.
A look at Disney's options pits, however, shows calls more than doubling puts. In fact, 101,321 calls were exchanged in the past 10 days, as opposed to just 51,259 puts. On the other hand, the stock's Schaeffer's open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.86 stands higher than 72% of readings from the past year, implying short-term options traders have been more put-biased than usual.