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Q: I’d like some information on Walt Disney Co. Could you give me its prospects? --Quakertown, Pa., and Macungie, Pa.

A: Similar letters came from these two towns in Pennsylvania. As far as Wall Street is concerned, Disney can do virtually no wrong.

Dennis Rosenberg, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., thinks that Disney’s stock is cheap even at the recent price of about $112 a share. Disney, which is occasionally the subject of takeover rumors, has seen its shares rise as high as $136.25 in the past year.

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Rosenberg says that, at the current stock price, Disney is selling at about 18 times the $6.15 a share that he expects it to earn in 1990. Last year, Disney profits were $5.10 a share.

Rosenberg’s forecast is about average for the analysts who follow Disney. According to the Institutional Brokers Estimate System computer, the average estimate for Disney’s earnings this year is $6.11 a share, with forecasts as high as $6.40 and as low as $5.80.

Rosenberg says, at 18 times earnings, Disney’s stock is selling for only a small premium over the stock market as a whole. Therefore, he thinks that it’s plenty safe.

There is one potential problem for Disney. MCA Corp. is scheduled to open a movie studio/amusement park near Orlando, Fla., to compete with DisneyWorld. And Disney might make an expensive acquisition someday, possibly in the publishing, television or entertainment fields. But nobody expects this well-run company to go overboard with whatever it decides to buy.

On the plus side, attendance at Disney amusement parks has been experiencing double-digit gains, and the company’s movie operations have been churning out winners. This summer, Disney will release “Dick Tracy.” Says Rosenberg: “I can see this stock over the next couple years going up to $150.”

Q: I’ve been following Circle K Corp.’s stock since 1989. It has fallen from about $16 to under $2. Do you think this stock would be a wise buy now? --Torrance

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A: It is hard to find experts who still follow Circle K Corp., the nation’s second-largest convenience store chain. I asked Dennis Telzrow, an analyst at the investment firm Eppler, Guerin & Turner in Dallas, if he follows Circle K, and his reply was: “We say last rites over it now and then.”

Circle K has been trying to restructure for some time. It has been selling stores. And in March, the company announced that it and Merrill Lynch & Co. were negotiating to restructure $340 million in bank debt. At the time, the company was not in compliance with some debt covenants.

There has been some progress. Just this month, Circle K announced a financial agreement that will keep lenders off its back for a while. Then last week, Carl Eller, the financier who directed the Phoenix chain’s growth, suddenly quit. Eller has been blamed for most of Circle K’s woes, but even with him gone the stock rose by just a fraction.

Circle K lost 72 cents a share in the year that ended in January. Telzrow predicts a loss of $1 a share this year. The computer at Institutional Brokers Estimate System says that, on average, analysts expect a deficit of 36 cents a share.

The amount of the loss is almost unimportant, however. Telzrow says Circle K simply cannot survive with its current debt load, especially since its operating earnings are not improving. “It’s going to be a long, long road to recovery,” he says.

Q: My father passed away and, going through his papers, I came across a stock certificate for Buffalo New Method Molding & Metals Corp. dated Dec. 24, 1918. Could you give me someone’s name who can find out about it? --Holland, N.Y.

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A: Sorry, but the stock is worthless.

According to R. M. Smythe & Co. of New York, which specializes in tracking down old stocks, Buffalo New Method Molding was dissolved in October, 1919.

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