the company has won 135 Academy Awards, 26 of which have been awarded to Walt. The company has been said to have produced some of the greatest films of all time, as well as revolutionizing the theme park industry. Disney has been criticized for supposed plagiarism, depicting racial stereotypes in the past, and both including and lacking LGBT-related elements in its films. The company, which has been public since 1940, trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with ticker symbol DIS and has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1991. In August 2020, just under two-thirds of the stock was owned by large financial institutions. History 1923–1934: Founding, Mickey Mouse, and Silly Symphonies Walt Disney and his friend animator Ub Iwerks had founded a film studio named Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City. Iwerks and Disney made a short film entitled Alice's Wonderland that depicted child actor Virginia Davis interacting with animated characters. In 1923, soon after the short was made, Laugh-O-Gram Studio went bankrupt but the film later became a hit after New York film distributor Margaret J. Winkler purchased it. Disney signed a contract to create six series of Alice Comedies with an option for two more six-episode series. Before signing the contract, Disney decided to move to Hollywood, Los Angeles, to join his brother Roy O. Disney, who had tuberculosis. Walt and Roy founded Disney Brothers Studio on October 16, 1923, to produce the films. Walt later persuaded Iwerks' and Davis' families to move to Hollywood as well. In January 1926, the Disney studio on Hyperion Street was completed, and Disney Brothers Studio's name was changed to Walt Disney Studio. After producing several Alice films for the next four years, Winkler handed the role of distributing films to her husband Charles Mintz. In 1927, Mintz asked for a new series of films to be made under Universal Pictures. In response, Walt created his first series of fully animated films, which featured the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Walt Disney Studio created 26 films with Oswald in them. In 1928, Walt wanted a larger fee for his films but Mintz wanted to reduce the price. Soon after, Walt discovered Universal Pictures owned the intellectual property rights to Oswald, and Mintz threatened to produce the films without him if he did not accept the reduction in payment. Walt declined and Mintz signed four of Walt