Apple Inc. (AAPL)vs
The Walt Disney Company (DIS)
Factual comparison for information only — not investment advice. Capital is at risk.
Quick verdict
Apple and Disney sit on opposite sides of the consumer wallet: one sells devices and subscriptions on a roughly two-year replacement rhythm, the other sells holidays, cinema tickets and streaming. On the twelve months to June 2026, Apple turned over $466.8bn against Disney's $98.9bn — roughly five times the scale — yet it is Disney that carries the cheaper tags at the 14 October 2026 close, on 22.5 times earnings and 9.6 times EV/EBITDA versus Apple's 39.3 and 30.1. Our scoring gave Disney valuation, growth and income, leaving the tally at 4.5 to 1.5. Quality, balance sheet and momentum could not be scored. Apple's economics remain in a different league — a 33.2% operating margin and 84.1% return on invested capital — so the contrast here is less about who runs the better business than about what each share price already assumes.
At-a-glance comparison
| Metric | AAPL | DIS |
|---|---|---|
| Price (14 Oct 2026) | $342.96 | $108.99 |
| Market cap | $5.01T | $188.2B |
| P/E (trailing) | 39.3× | 22.5× |
| EV / EBITDA | 30.1× | 9.6× |
| Price / sales | 10.7× | 1.9× |
| Price / book | 46.5× | 1.7× |
| FCF yield | 2.7% | 4.4% |
| Rev. growth (3y) | 1.8% | 4.5% |
| EPS growth (3y) | 6.9% | 58.5% |
| Gross margin | 48.6% | n/a |
| Operating margin | 33.2% | 18.4% |
| Return on equity | 148.8% | 7.8% |
| ROIC | 84.1% | 8.8% |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0.27× | 1.72× |
| Current ratio | 1.00 | 0.71 |
| Dividend yield | 0.3% | 1.2% |
| Buyback yield | 1.6% | 4.4% |
Not scored — Quality: no gross margin for DIS. Balance sheet: no interest coverage for either company. Momentum: no share-price return data for either company. A factor missing a figure for either company cannot be won by either, so it adds half a point to each score, as a tie does.
Business model and revenue mix
Apple designs and sells iPhone, Mac, iPad and wearables, with an attached services layer spanning the App Store, iCloud, Apple Music and Apple Pay; hardware cycles and an installed base drive the revenue line, which reached $466.8bn in the twelve months to June 2026, with $128.9bn of net income. Disney is an entertainment conglomerate: Disney+ and Hulu streaming, theme parks and cruise ships, film studios, and television networks including ESPN. Its $98.9bn of revenue over the same period converted into $8.6bn of net income. The economic forces differ accordingly — Apple is exposed to device replacement, component costs and services attach rates; Disney to discretionary travel spend, park attendance, box office and the cost of sports rights. Both report in US dollars and both filed to June 2026, Apple on 31 July and Disney on 5 August.
Valuation
On price, the gap is wide and consistent. Disney trades at 22.5 times trailing earnings, 1.9 times sales, 1.71 times book and 9.6 times EV/EBITDA, with a free cash flow yield of 4.41%. Apple commands 39.3 times earnings, 10.7 times sales, 46.6 times book and 30.1 times EV/EBITDA, for a 2.73% free cash flow yield. The price/earnings-to-growth figures tell the same story from a different angle: 0.38 for Disney against 5.72 for Apple. Apple's price-to-book is of limited use in isolation, since shareholders' equity of $107.5bn has been kept slim by buybacks against a $5,005.2bn market capitalisation. Even setting that aside, every other multiple points the same way. The valuation factor goes to Disney, and the free cash flow yields — $136.7bn for Apple, $8.3bn for Disney — do not close the gap.
Growth profile
Measured over three years from fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2025, Disney grew revenue at 4.51% a year against Apple's 1.81%. Stretch to five years, from fiscal 2020, and Apple leads on the top line at 8.68% versus 7.63% — a reminder that Apple's recent revenue growth has been slower than its medium-term record. On earnings per share, Disney's three-year compound rate of 58.51% is extraordinary, but it runs from a fiscal 2022 base that was heavily depressed, so it reflects recovery rather than a repeatable rate; no five-year EPS figure is available for Disney because earnings were a loss at one end of that window. Apple compounded EPS at 6.88% over three years and 17.86% over five. The growth factor goes to Disney on the strength of the nearer-term figures.
Profitability and quality
The quality factor could not be scored, because no gross margin is available for Disney — its filings supply no usable gross-profit or cost-of-sales split for a business mixing parks, studios and networks. What remains is still instructive. Apple ran a 48.65% gross margin, a 33.17% operating margin and a 27.62% net margin in the twelve months to June 2026; Disney posted 18.45% and 8.70% on the latter two. On capital returns, Apple's 84.08% return on invested capital and Disney's 8.76% are an order of magnitude apart. Apple's 148.75% return on equity is flattered by a buyback-shrunken $107.5bn equity base, which is why return on invested capital is the fairer read here. Disney's 7.85% ROE sits against $110.0bn of equity — a larger book supporting far less profit.
Balance-sheet risk
Neither company could be scored on financial strength, because no reported interest expense is available for either Apple or Disney, and interest coverage needs that figure alongside operating profit. The underlying data still differ. As at 27 June 2026, Apple held $39.5bn of cash against $84.3bn of total debt, leaving net debt at 0.27 times EBITDA, with a current ratio of exactly 1.0. Disney held $5.2bn of cash against $46.0bn of debt, for 1.72 times EBITDA and a current ratio of 0.71. Apple's leverage is lighter relative to earnings and its liquidity cushion marginally better, though a current ratio of 1.0 is not itself generous. Disney's absolute debt load is smaller in dollars but considerably heavier against a smaller earnings base. No winner is declared on this factor.
Price performance and shareholder returns
Shareholder distributions favour Disney on both counts. Over the twelve months to June 2026 Disney paid $1.29 per share, a 1.18% yield, from a 25.99% payout ratio, and retired stock worth 4.38% of its market value. Apple paid $1.05 per share for a 0.31% yield on a 12.13% payout, with a 1.64% buyback yield — a modest headline return despite $136.7bn of free cash flow, because the $5,005.2bn market capitalisation dilutes any distribution into a small percentage. Both payout ratios leave ample room for reinvestment or increases. The income factor goes to Disney. Momentum could not be assessed for either company: we hold no licensed share-price history, so one-year, three-year and five-year returns are unavailable and that factor is never scored on this site.
Which stock fits which investor
Investors screening on price, near-term growth or distributions are pointed towards Disney in this pairing: it takes the value, growth and income picks, on 22.5 times earnings, 4.51% three-year revenue growth and a 1.18% dividend yield supported by a 4.38% buyback yield. Apple is named best for quality, but on a single figure — its 84.08% return on invested capital — because the quality factor itself could not be scored without a Disney gross margin. Apple carries the "mature, high-quality" tag, Disney simply "mature". The overall tally is 4.5 to Disney against 1.5 to Apple, with three of six factors unscored. The honest summary is that Apple is the more profitable business by a distance and Disney the cheaper share, and the data cannot resolve which matters more.
- Value: DIS
- Growth: DIS
- Income: DIS
- Quality: AAPL
Where you can buy AAPL or DIS
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Frequently asked questions
- Why is Apple so much more expensive than Disney on every multiple?
- At the 14 October 2026 close Apple trades on 39.3 times trailing earnings and 30.1 times EV/EBITDA versus Disney's 22.5 and 9.6. The data do not explain the premium, but Apple's 33.17% operating margin and 84.08% return on invested capital are far above Disney's 18.45% and 8.76%, and its PEG of 5.72 against Disney's 0.38 shows the premium is not matched by faster growth.
- Is Disney's 58.51% EPS growth rate reliable?
- It should be treated with care. The 58.51% figure compounds from fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2025, and the fiscal 2022 starting point was depressed, so the rate captures recovery rather than an ongoing run rate. Disney's revenue grew at a more modest 4.51% a year over the same three years.
- Which company pays more to shareholders?
- Disney. Over the twelve months to June 2026 it yielded 1.18% in dividends from a 25.99% payout ratio plus a 4.38% buyback yield. Apple yielded 0.31% on a 12.13% payout, with a 1.64% buyback yield, despite generating $136.7bn of free cash flow.
- Which balance sheet is stronger?
- The factor could not be scored, as neither company has a reported interest expense available. On the raw figures at 27 June 2026, Apple's net debt was 0.27 times EBITDA with a current ratio of 1.0; Disney's was 1.72 times with a current ratio of 0.71.
- How do the two compare on size?
- Apple generated $466.8bn of revenue in the twelve months to June 2026 against Disney's $98.9bn — roughly five times larger — and its $5,005.2bn market capitalisation dwarfs Disney's $188.2bn. Net income was $128.9bn against $8.6bn.
Go deeper: guides for this comparison
- Balance-sheet risk: net debt, interest cover and the current ratioThe three numbers that show whether a company can carry its debt, how to read each one, and what they reveal about Pfizer, Intel, Disney and Palantir.
- Dividends vs buybacks: how companies hand cash back, and how to judge itDividend yield, payout ratio and buyback yield explained with real companies, why a high yield can be a warning, and how to tell whether a payout is sustainable.
- Revenue growth vs EPS growth: why they diverge and which to trustHow three-year growth rates are calculated, why earnings can grow ten times faster than sales or shrink while sales rise, and what Salesforce, Meta and Tesla show.
- Big tech compared: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta and Amazon by the numbersThe largest technology companies on one table — growth, margins, the cash cost of the AI build-out, and what each valuation assumes — built from their SEC filings.
Methodology and data sources
Each comparison runs both companies through a transparent six-factor framework — valuation, growth, profitability/quality, balance-sheet strength, income and momentum. Factor winners are decided by fixed rules on the metrics shown above, not opinion. Financial-statement figures come from each company's own filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (annual 10-K and quarterly 10-Q reports, read from EDGAR's XBRL data). Income-statement and cash-flow items are trailing twelve months to June 27, 2026 for AAPL and DIS; balance-sheet items are as at each company's latest reported quarter. Share prices are exchange closing prices as of October 14, 2026, and every valuation multiple combines those prices with the filed figures. Forward P/E is not shown because analyst estimates are not part of any filing. The “last updated” date is when this page was last regenerated. How the score is decided, factor by factor: the six-factor score explained.
How this page was made. The figures are computed from the filings and closing prices described above. The written analysis was drafted by an AI model (Anthropic's Claude) working only from this page's data; an automated check then compared every number in it with that data, and the page could not have been published if any figure failed. Abdelali El Amrani is responsible for what is published — see our editorial policy, or report an error. TickerVerdict provides factual data comparisons for informational purposes only. Nothing here is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Figures may be delayed; verify with your broker before investing. Capital is at risk.