Here's what major analysts thought of Disney's investor day as shares surge

Published Fri, Dec 11 20208:27 AM ESTUpdated Fri, Dec 11 20204:04 PM EST

Jesse Pound @/in/jesse-pound @jesserpound

(This story is for CNBC Pro subscribers only). Walt Disney 's stock was surging after an investor day presentation that earned praise and price target hikes from several top Wall Street analysts. Shares of the entertainment giant jumped 14% on the heels of Thursday's investor presentation, where Disney rolled out new streaming subscriber numbers , its content slate for the next several years and announced a price hike for Disney+. Needham analyst Lauren Martin, one of the top Wall Street researchers in the internet and media space, said in a note to clients that Disney has already surpassed Netflix as the leader in streaming video. "Even if we begin with the hypothesis that NFLX's content is better than DIS's (which DIS investors would dispute), DIS's marketing decisions and innovations make NFLX look like it is standing still given its single subscription SVOD tier of $9-$18/month," Martin said. Martin praised Disney's suite of bundles that let subscribers select combinations of their streaming services at different price points, and said that Disney's extensive back catalog and key franchises gives it an advantage over Netflix. Still, the analyst kept a hold rating on the stock, saying that Wall Street's consensus earnings estimates for Disney are too high in the near term. JPMorgan was one of several investment firms to raise its estimates Disney, keeping its buy rating and hiking its price target to $175 per share from $170. Disney shares closed Thursday at $154.69. "Overall, we believe subscriber guidance, content spending, and the timing of price increase all came in above expectations, while time to profitability was roughly in-line. The profitability time line appears conservative in our view, or it leaves room for another step up in content spend beyond this revised guidance," the JPMorgan note said. JPMorgan was also complimentary of Disney's bundle strategy, saying that the plans would help reduce subscriber churn and boost Hulu and ESPN+. Check out the takeaways from other major Wall Street shops below. Barclays: Overweight, price target to $185 from $150 "While the event was not as expansive as we would have liked, we believe the company's growth path is likely to be unparalleled and continues to have significant further optionality." Goldman Sachs: Buy, price target to $200 from $157 "Our higher price target reflects a material increase in our long-term forecasts for DIS's direct-to-consumer (DTC) subscribers and revenue as we factor in the company's newly revealed Star offering and the higher price points for Disney+ that going into effect in 2021." MoffettNathanson: Neutral, price target at $160 "While we expected to hear about Disney's accelerated content investment in their DTC businesses, the sheer size and quality of the content tsunami headed to Disney+ was mind-blowing and frightening to any sub-scale company thinking about competing in the scripted entertainment space." Morgan Stanley: Overweight, price target at $175 "If it achieves its goals, Disney will exit FY24 with over 300mm streaming subscribers. At potentially $35bn in revenues, it would leave streaming as its single largest business. Finally, it would complete a transformation of the company and open up additional opportunities over time." Credit Suisse: Outperform, price target to $192 from $178 "While consumers should maintain their Netflix subscriptions, Disney will probably increasingly be seen as a streaming investment alternative to Netflix and the debate as to streaming fatigue remains (will other services get squeezed out?)." Cowen: Market perform, price target at $115 "Disney did not accelerate its D+ profitability target forward from FY24. It's not clear how this leads to an improved long-term outlook for earnings power." Deutsche Bank: Buy, price target at $163 "The biggest question regarding Disney+, in our view, has been whether churn would creep up as annual promotions expire given the fairly slow cadence of original content releases since the service was launched a year ago. This accelerated pace should be a positive driver of gross adds and a driver of lower churn." Citi: Buy, price target at $175 "To frame the potential upside, we used Disney's 2024 outlook versus our 2024 estimate and applied our EV-per-sub metrics to each DTC service. This math suggests the stock should be up $11 to $14 depending on the discount rate that is applied to the 2024 outlook." Evercore ISI: Outperform, price target to $185 from $150 "In many ways tonight's event felt like the true launch of Disney+ and made it clear that the streaming pivot is still in early innings." Bank of America: Buy, price target to $192 from $166 "Despite near term COVID pressures, we believe DIS is positioned to grow stronger from faster Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ sub growth, launch of a Star intl. and LT theme park margin potential."

Bob Chapek, Disney

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(This story is for CNBC Pro subscribers only).

Walt Disney's stock was surging after an investor day presentation that earned praise and price target hikes from several top Wall Street analysts.

Shares of the entertainment giant jumped 14% on the heels of Thursday's investor presentation, where Disney rolled out new streaming subscriber numbers, its content slate for the next several years and announced a price hike for Disney+.

Needham analyst Lauren Martin, one of the top Wall Street researchers in the internet and media space, said in a note to clients that Disney has already surpassed Netflix as the leader in streaming video.