Tracing its roots to a cartoon studio in California, The Walt Disney Company $($DIS$)$ has become one of the largest and most diversified media and entertainment companies in the world. When Walt Disney lost the rights to his first successful animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, it would have been easy to give up$.$ However, Walt Disney rebounded and created his most famous character, Mickey Mouse. With the successful release of the animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a few years later, The Walt Disney Company was off and running. In addition to its theme parks and resorts in Anaheim, California and Orlando, Florida, Disney businesses include television networks $($ABC and ESPN$),$ film studios $($Twentieth Century Fox, Marvel Entertainment, and Lucasfilm$),$ and streaming services $($Hulu and Disney$+).$

When it first sold its common stock to the public in $1957,$ Disney would have been a great investment. If you had bought $100$ shares, you would have paid $$13\mathrm{.}88$ per share and invested $$1,388.$ Due to stock splits, you would now own $38,400$ shares. With a recent stock price of $$127\mathrm{.}73$ per share, your total investment would be worth over $$4\mathrm{.}9$ million. Unfortunately, you can$$t invest using hindsight.

How can you find investment opportunities with the growth potential of Disney? Like any significant purchase, you should do some research to guide your investment decision. If you were buying a car, for example, you might go to Edmunds.com to obtain reviews, ratings, prices, specifications, options, and fuel economies to evaluate different vehicles. In selecting companies in which to invest, you can use financial analysis to gain insight into a company$$s past performance and future prospects. This chapter describes and illustrates common financial data that can be analyzed to assist in making investment decisions, such as whether now would be a good time to invest in Disney stock.