'I hate losing money' — Jim Cramer says he will vote to put Nelson Peltz on Disney's board

Published Sun, Feb 25 202410:01 AM EST

As a Disney shareholder for the Club, Jim Cramer has decided to support activist investor Nelson Peltz's fight for seats on the board of the entertainment and theme parks giant. "We're going to vote the blue card," Jim said Saturday at the second annual Club meeting in New York City. It means he's going to vote to put the Trian Partners founder Peltz and former Disney CFO Jay Rasulo on the Disney board. Jim believes Peltz and Rasulo will hold Disney's board and management accountable for making changes to fix the business and turn around the company's underperforming stock. For its part, Disney is urging shareholders to cast the white proxy card for only the company's 12 nominees. The Disney annual is set for April 3. Shareholders of record as of the close of business on Feb. 5 can vote at the meeting. Jim said he respects the current board members individually but "collectively in that boardroom they're just not that impressive." He added, "This is a board that owns very little stock," arguing they don't have enough skin in the game to act with the urgency needed to right the ship. Peltz doesn't have that problem. He represents the biggest single block of Disney shares — some $3 billion worth — between Trian's stake and that of ousted Marvel Entertainment head Ike Perlmutter. Jim said he went to dinner last week with longtime business acquaintance Perlmutter to find out what he hopes to achieve by pledging his shares to Peltz. Jim said Perlmutter, who sold Marvel to Disney for $4 billion in 2009 and was recently let go at Disney, wants the stock higher, costs down, and the bad movies to stop. Jim helped Perlmutter manage his money in the 1980s. Among the fixes outlined in Trian's filing for board seats were to "complete a successful CEO succession; and align management pay with performance," achieve Netflix -like margins in streaming, and target "at least high-single-digit operating income growth" at parks to ensure adequate return capital expenditures. "It is ridiculous to me that Netflix has crushed Disney," Jim said. "With that brand name? And, those theme parks? Come on." Jim said Peltz has a track record of being a productive board member, citing interviews he did with the CEOs of Procter & Gamble , Mondelez and Kraft Heinz . "Those CEOs said that he did an amazing job, asking questions and stopping them from doing stupid things." Jim thinks Peltz can draw on that expertise to help Disney. "This is a classic situation where there's a lot more value but it has to be brought out by others, not by management," he explained. "I hate losing money." DIS 5Y mountain Disney 5 years While Disney has recently stepped up its turnaround plans, Jim believes there still needs to be pressure on management given the long-term underperformance of the stock. To be sure, Disney CEO Bob Iger has restructured the company and implemented aggressive cost-cutting measures since he returned to the C-suite in November 2022. After the closing bell on Feb. 7 , Disney issued a stronger-than-expected fiscal 2024 first-quarter profit as cost reductions across its many businesses boosted margins despite flat revenue. Iger also brought back the dividend and put in a buyback. A strong profit forecast for the rest of fiscal 2024 also helped fuel an 11.5% post-earnings stock surge on Feb. 8. "I think the rally is because the company has had its mind concentrated by Nelson Peltz and by Jay Rasulo, former CFO who did not get to be CEO," Jim said. While questions remain about the long-term profitability of streaming, new CFO Hugh Johnston, who came to Disney from PepisCo , said on the call that the company is targeting double-digit operating margins, with a sense of urgency in getting there. Peltz had pushed to get on Disney's board in early 2023 but then called off the effort in a CNBC interview with Jim — hoping Iger was on the right track. But last month, Peltz officially launched his proxy fight for seats. Peltz told Jim at the time, "This company is just not being run properly. The board oversight is awful." Jim agrees and the stock's terrible track record reflects this oversight issue. The Club has felt this pain as long-time shareholders. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long DIS, PG. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.