Jim Cramer urges investors to buy Disney stock, prompting critics to joke: ‘Time to short’

Bob Iger’s return as CEO of The Walt Disney Company has Jim Cramer bullish on the Mouse House, but critics of the CNBC investment maven say that’s as good a reason as any to bet that the stock price is going to fall.

“Disney, pay 98 if you can. That will be nothing …versus where it goes,” Cramer tweeted on Sunday night at around the same time that it was learned Disney’s board of directors had pushed out Bob Chapek and replaced him with his predecessor, Iger.

Shares of Disney opened north of $100 at the opening bell on Wall Street on Monday as investors hailed the decision by the company’s board to reinstall Iger at the helm of the media and entertainment behemoth.

As of just past noon time on Monday, Disney stock was trading at $96.68 a share. The stock price soared by some 10% in premarket trading in reaction to the news of Iger’s return.

Cramer’s critics on Monday trolled the CNBC analyst, saying it was time to run for cover.

Jim Cramer is advising investors to buy stock in Disney after the company replaced CEO Bob Chapek with his predecessor, Bob Iger.
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Jim Cramer urged investors to buy up stock in Disney.
Jim Cramer urged investors to buy up stock in Disney.
CNBC

“Disney is doomed,” tweeted one Twitter user who attached Cramer’s face onto the Deadpool superhero who is part of Marvel Comics’ stable of characters. Marvel is a subsidiary of Disney.

Another Twitter user posted a meme depicting Mickey Mouse with a gun pointed to his head.

“Sigh, puts it is,” tweeted another Cramer troll. In stock trading, a put is a type of option that increases in value as the share price falls.

“Time to short,” quipped another Twitter user.

“Shorting” a stock means to borrow shares that the investor thinks will decrease in value. The investor would then sell the shares on the open market at a lower price and pocket the different, thus turning a profit by betting against the stock.

Disney’s board of directors announced on Sunday that Bob Iger would return as CEO, replacing his handpicked successor, Bob Chapek.
Getty Images for Disney

Cramer has been a frequent target of criticism on social media for stock tips and investment advice that have missed the target.

Last month, Cramer appeared on the verge of tears when he offered up an emotional on-air apology for touting Meta, Facebook’s parent company which has seen its stock price plummet in the last year.

Chapek, who has spent decades at Disney, ends his tumultuous two-and-a-half year run as CEO.
REUTERS

“I made a mistake here,” Cramer said, his voice halting and trembling as he spoke. “I was wrong.”

Cramer has gained a reputation online as an untrustworthy prognosticator of the stock market as Twitter and Reddit trolls have frequently trended the term “Inverse Cramer” — the idea being that investors should do the opposite of whatever the CNBC personality recommends.

One fund manager, Tuttle Capital Management, has taken the concept further, filing prospectuses for two Cramer-tracking funds — the “Inverse Cramer ETF” and the “Long Cramer,” according to Nasdaq.



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Jim Cramer says Disney CEO ‘absolutely’ must be fired

CNBC’s Jim Cramer called for the firing of Disney CEO Bob Chapek after the Mouse House turned in dismal fourth quarter earnings earlier this week.

“Disney, they have ESPN. If we were on ESPN, we would say he’s got to be fired. That’s pretty cut and dry,” Cramer said on CNBC’s business news program “Squawk Box” Wednesday morning. “The losses here are just mind-boggling. When you’re going over the quarter, it’s stunning.”

Cramer slammed Chapek for his “delusional” characterization of the quarter, in which the streaming service Disney+ took a $1.5 billion loss, causing the media giant to miss Wall Street’s projections.

“Our fourth quarter saw strong subscription growth with the addition of 14.6 million total subscriptions, including 12.1 million Disney+ subscribers,” Chapek said in his statement Tuesday.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek told investors that the company was making progress on its streaming efforts, even as the unit lost $1.5 billion in the quarter.
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“The rapid growth of Disney+ in just three years since launch is a direct result of our strategic decision to invest heavily in creating incredible content and rolling out the service internationally,” Chapek continued, “and we expect our DTC operating losses to narrow going forward and that Disney+ will still achieve profitability in fiscal 2024, assuming we do not see a meaningful shift in the economic climate.”

Comparing Chapek to a pro-sports coach, the “Mad Money” host said Chapek “absolutely” should be fired because the “team” has been “going downhill.”

“There is just no doubt that he has to go,” Cramer said. “The way he handled it, he made it sound like it was a four-star quarter. Delusional.”

Chapek has had a bumpy ride as CEO at Disney, having grabbed the reins at the House of Mouse in 2020 after Bob Iger retired from his 15-year stint at the company. The former chairman of Disney’s lucrative theme parks division expressed how difficult his time as CEO has been during a panel at The Paley Center for Media in New York on Wednesday.

“It was really scary for me,” Chapek said, referring to the first few weeks as CEO, which was marked by the onset of the pandemic and the temporary closure of Disney’s theme parks.

Jim Cramer slammed Chapek for his “delusional” response after the company’s weak earnings results this week.
CNBC

“There’s no playbook on it,” he said, referring to the response to the pandemic. “You don’t know what challenge lays around the corner [as CEO].”

Aside from the pandemic, Chapek’s time as CEO has been marked by some big missteps by the exec, including a PR crisis early this year after Disney initially refused to take a stand against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ discriminatory “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Nonetheless, Disney’s board renewed Chapek’s contract for another three years in June.

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