Many Children Own Stock : Disney Meetings a Family Affair
Eleven years ago when Ashley Swan was born, she received one share of Walt Disney Productions stock.
Wednesday afternoon, Ashley, one of the 22 members of her family who own Disney stock, was among the estimated 6,000 shareholders who jammed the Anaheim Convention Center to attend the Burbank-based company’s annual meeting.
Ashley’s 13-year-old brother, Michael, is now buying his own Disney stock with the money he earned from appearing in a toy manufacturer’s television commercial. “I love to invest my money,” said Michael, who attends Currie Intermediate School in Tustin. “It’s a lot better than buying toys.”
Their mother, Nancy, said she didn’t buy her children Disney stock in order to make them rich, but to spark their interest in business. “We want them to learn what a company is all about. This is the best way to get them interested,” she said.
The Swans are not alone. “Thousands and thousands” of Disney’s 62,000 shareholders are under 18 years old, said Erwin Okun, a company vice president in investor relations. At past annual meetings, as many as half of the attendees have been kids, he said, although adults far outnumbered children at Wednesday’s session. Well aware of its young audience, Disney catered to the youthful stockholders by showing Disney animated films to open and close the meeting, and welcomed arriving guests with a Disneyland brass quintet.
Like the Swans, many parents take their kids to the annual meetings not so much to see cartoons, but to learn about the business world through Disney. Lately, Disney has been a good company to study as investors who own millions of shares have fought for control of the company.
Because children typically own only a few shares each, “they probably account for a very small percent of the company’s total ownership” of 33.8 million shares, said Bob Penewell, assistant man ager at the Newport Beach office of E.F. Hutton & Co. Inc. “But certainly, Disney is one of the more popular stocks for people to buy for their children.”
What prevents even more families from buying their kids Disney stock is its relatively high price, Penewell said. The stock closed Wednesday at slightly less than $75 a share. “A lot of people figure that instead of buying one share of Disney, they’d rather get the kids a couple of new outfits,” he said.
Matching Sweat Shirts
Some Disney fans do both. Shareholders Shirley Hoffman and her daughter, Janice, wore matching Mickey Mouse sweat shirts to the meeting. Shirley’s husband, Henry, didn’t wear a Mickey Mouse sweat shirt, but he is a longtime Disney supporter.
He used to drive to Anaheim 30-plus years ago to watch Disneyland being built. When his son was born a few years later, the infant received one share of Disney stock from an associate of Hoffman’s. “I hated to see the kid getting 3-cent dividends each quarter, so I bought more stock,” said Hoffman, a San Gabriel distributor. Today, the Hoffman family owns 200 shares.
When Louise McAdam’s twin grandchildren were born four years ago, the Burbank woman gave each of them one share of Disney stock. “Not only does it get them to learn about stocks, but this meeting is designed for children,” she said.
Indeed, the meeting opened with a program lampooning the company’s takeover struggles, interspersing clips from Disney cartoons with newspaper headlines to illustrate the turmoil. Kids seemed to enjoy the clips as much as the parents. And rather than the sound of a gavel, the company ended the meeting by showing the Disney film “101 Dalmations.”
Disneyland Trip
Rick and Joyce Dentt of San Diego attended the meeting with their 7-year-old daughter, Rebecca, and their 4-year-old son, Ryan. Rebecca and Ryan each own 10 shares of stock and the parents own 100 shares in total. “Disney is a good way to get kids interested in business,” said Rick before the meeting, while Ryan slept on his shoulder. But it wasn’t waiting for the meeting that put Ryan to sleep, his father said. “We just got back from Disneyland,” Rick explained.
Disney scheduled its meeting at midday so that shareholders who arrived from out of town could still schedule a morning or evening visit to Disneyland. “It’s nice to know that the happiest place in the world is right across the street,” Disney President Frank Wells quipped in his opening remarks.
Many shareholders were lured to the annual meeting by passes to Disneyland given each attendee. William Benway, a Laguna Hills engineer whose family owns 40 shares of Disney stock, arrived with his two children about an hour before the meeting began.
He voted on the proxy ballot, then collected Disneyland passes for the family. “We don’t even go to the meeting,” he confessed. “I have to go back to work.”
