The House of Mouse

Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) recently kicked off a new fiscal year with an earnings decline due to an unusually weak movie-release schedule. But 2019 is looking up.

For one, Disney’s recently launched ESPN+ streaming service reached 2 million paid subscribers, and the company is poised to launch a similar streaming service called Disney+ later this year. Both will help offset the negative impact of cord-cutters on its broadcast business.

Meanwhile, its big-screen releases this year include “Captain Marvel” and a live-action version of “Dumbo” in March; Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” in April; a live-action rendition of “Aladdin” in May; Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” in June; a live-action version of “The Lion King” in July; “Frozen 2” in November; and “Star Wars: Episode IX” in December.

Assuming Disney’s pending $71.3 billion acquisition of most of the assets of 21st Century Fox goes as planned, it will own a 60 percent stake in Hulu, up from 30 percent, along with properties such as “Avatar,” National Geographic and Marvel’s “Deadpool,” “Fantastic Four” and “X-Men” franchises.

With a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio in the mid-teens and a growing dividend recently yielding 1.5 percent, Disney is an appealing candidate for the portfolios of long-term investors. (The Motley Fool owns shares of and has recommended Walt Disney.)