A mouse for your house

Many investors have been steering clear of Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), fearing the effect of gobs of consumers cutting their cable cords on its ESPN and ABC TV businesses. But that’s short-sighted.

Disney’s theme parks attract more than 150 million visitors annually, the Disney cruise line is adding three more ships between 2021 and 2023, and the company is breaking away from its Netflix partnership to nurture its own digital video efforts.

Disney is already a movie powerhouse. It owns much of the Marvel universe through its acquisition of Marvel Entertainment. And having also bought Pixar and Lucasfilm, it has the Toy Story and Star Wars franchises, too. Some analysts have estimated that Disney earned 61 percent of the movie industry’s total profits in 2016.

With Disney acquiring Twenty-First Century Fox for $71 billion (the purchase was approved by shareholders last month), it will get a rich content library featuring properties from “Avatar” to “The Simpsons.” Disney’s ability to turn intellectual property into cold, hard cash will serve it well as it builds its own video streaming service.

Walt Disney’s future looks as strong as ever, and its stock seems undervalued today, trading with a recent price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio in the mid-teens and a 1.5 percent dividend yield. (The Motley Fool owns shares of and has recommended Disney).