Disney (DIS) is seen as anything but a fun investment right now.
The short interest in the media giant has surged by $696 million over the last month, according to research outfit S3 Analytics. That marks the fifth largest short interest increase in the U.S. market in one month's time.
The bear raid on Disney follows comments made by CEO Bob Iger at a conference earlier this month that earnings would be flat this year vs. 2016 due in part to continued struggles at sports channel ESPN. Wall Street analysts had forecast 3% growth. The growth would also mark a drastic deceleration from the 17.8% rate driven since 2010, according to S3 Analytics.
Shares of Disney touched a low for the year of $97.06 on Sept. 7 following Iger's surprising guidance. The stock has since recovered slightly to $98.06, and is down about 8% on the year.
Not helping Disney bulls is uncertainty on Disney's new streaming service, which will go head-to-head with Netflix (NFLX) .
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