Though Walt Disney has been immensely challenged during the pandemic -- as are other traditional media companies -- investors looked well beyond this current period. And that confidence drove Disney stock to new heights in recent months.

Disney stock has shot up 53% over the last six months, 225% higher since March 18, at the beginning of the pandemic. It closed on Friday $178.90.

Now one veteran stock market media analyst, Richard Greenfield of LightShed Partner, who has been down on Disney for sometime, has reversed his position, changing his “sell” recommendation in May to a “neutral.”

“Our call has been dead wrong,” he writes on Friday in a note. “Disney management surprised us by recognizing the urgency of leaning much more heavily into streaming at the expense of near-term earnings — something for which we have advocated for years. And, investors have rewarded Disney’s wise decision.”

Greenfield notes that instead of focusing on the post-COVID world, “especially as it became clear vaccines were on the way,” investors looks well beyond this current period.

Since mid-March, Disney has been enormously challenged by dramatically sinking revenues and profitability, due to theme-park closures, cruise-line shutdowns and global theatrical film business disruptions.

In the third quarter, Disney posted a net loss of $580 million -- its first loss in decades -- versus $1.25 billion net profit in the same period in 2019. Revenue was down a massive 23% to $14.71 billion.

Greenfield says it isn’t just about dramatically changing company efforts -- virtually for all Disney's businesses -- its focusing almost entirely around a direct-to-consumer streaming emphasis.

“We were simply blown away by the depth of content being created for Disney+ (and the dollars behind it). [Disney's] increasing content spend on Disney+ to over $8 billion by 2024, compared to a target of $4 billion set just a year ago, is a dramatic acceleration.”