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Disney Guides $7 Billion Fiscal 2026 Buyback

Management plans to fund the repurchases from roughly $10 billion in projected free cash flow.

Overview

  • Disney’s fiscal 2026 repurchase plan totals $7 billion, double fiscal 2025 and the company’s second-largest annual program after 2017.
  • The company projects about $19 billion in cash from operations and $9 billion in capital expenditures, leaving roughly $10 billion in free cash flow to cover buybacks and dividends.
  • Based on the share count and recent price cited in the analysis, the program could trim outstanding shares by about 67.5 million, or approximately 3.8%, with purchases executed over the year.
  • Disney is prioritizing buybacks over a larger dividend, focusing capital returns on share repurchases rather than boosting the roughly $2.6 billion dividend outlay.
  • The update follows Q1 fiscal 2026 results that pressured the stock as investors weighed slower linear networks and sports headwinds against strong cash generation from parks and a rapidly expanding cruise business, with Josh D’Amaro set to become CEO on March 18.