Take Two and Video Game Makers Report With New Financial Measures -08/04/16 at 4:47 PM CDTby Perry Rod

Take Two Interactive, Inc. reported earnings that at first glance looked unusually strong, guiding a full year earnings-per-share outlook of $2.00 to $2.25 versus a prior outlook of about half of those numbers. Even analysts were confused with several asking for help on how to compare the earnings and revenues numbers to prior numbers and outlook. The vid...

When Activision's Director Sells, Investors Should Pay Attention -09/18/11 at 6:30 AM CDTby Perry Rod

Brian Kelly, Activision Inc.'s (NASDAQ:ATVI) Co-Chairman, sold about 1.6 million worth of Activision stock from exercised options last week.  This was reported in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission late Friday after regular trading. Kelly's timing for stock sales has been impressive and even slightly better than well known CEO Robert ...

Take Two, THQ Down 20% in August -09/01/10 at 12:56 PM CDTby Perry Rod

With the NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index down 6% and 4%, respectively, two video game publishers have seen their shares beaten down to a bloody pulp in the last month – THQ Inc. (NASDAQ:THQI) and Take Two Interactive (NASDAQ:TTWO). Competitor Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS), meanwhile, was down 4% in the same period. THQ issued a weak quarterly update whic...

Michael Pachter Overestimates, Take Two Interactive Shares Tumble -08/12/10 at 9:07 PM CDTby Perry Rod

Call it the Pachter effect. Video game analyst Michael Pachter, who himself has seemed to admit in the past that his monthly U.S. sales estimates for publishers come without much extensive research, has perhaps managed to help move Take Two Interactive’s stock (NASDAQ:TTWO) down about 17% in only three days.  How?  On Monday of this week,...

Activision E3 2010 Recap -06/21/10 at 9:35 AM CDTby Perry Rod

Executives at Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) had a strong sense of self awareness this year.  The greatest decision they made at E3 was to stay off the floor and keep a low profile (aside from throwing themselves a concert featuring Eminem, Jane’s Addiction and Usher a day before E3 began).   This was in contrast to last year,...

Hopes and Dreams Continue at Take Two Interactive Software -12/28/09 at 10:11 AM CSTby Perry Rod

He said in 1993 it was always his dream to run his own media company.  Strauss Zelnick left a nice job at Fox and took a big risk to work on a start-up video game company, Crystal Dynamics.  That risk turned out to be a failure for him at the time but provided him with a resume entry that would prove to be invaluable. When Carl Icahn bought int...

Activision Will Beat Analyst NPD Revenue Estimate Today -12/10/09 at 10:27 AM CSTby Perry Rod

ANALYSIS - Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter is predicting that NPD will show that publisher Activision Blizzard is going to bring in 455 million in U.S. revenue in the month of November.  Pachter also predicts that 6 million units of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be sold. These two predictions do not make sense, considering November 2008 ...

A Tale of Two Company Blockbuster Franchises: Activision Blizzard's C... -11/23/09 at 3:28 PM CSTby Perry Rod

Activision Blizzard’s (NASDAQ: ATVI) Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 recently dethroned Take Two Interactive's (NASDAQ: TTWO) Grand Theft Auto 4 for having the biggest opening week worldwide of any video game in history.  One glaring difference between the business models behind the two franchises is that one comes out with a core sequel each yea...

Gamestop Inc Will Die, They Say, But Publisher Actions Speak Louder T... -10/29/09 at 12:54 PM CDTby Perry Rod

Gamestop’s closest U.S. comparable is Best Buy (BBY).  Analysts for Best Buy Inc. are predicting an 8% year over year EPS growth rate.  Based on current trading prices, BBY trades at a P/E ratio of around 13. Meanwhile, analysts project a 14% year over year EPS increase at Gamestop Inc (NYSE:GME).  With higher analyst growth expectati...

NPD Results Delayed for Gamestop Corp, Activision, Take Two Interacti... -10/15/09 at 5:27 PM CDTby Mahyar Hashemi

Video game investors will have to wait a couple more business days to see September's NPD results for video game software and hardware sales.  "We have just released a communication to our clients, explaining that, due to last minute processing requirements, the NPD Video Games Retail Tracking information for September 2009 will now be released on Mo...

Wedbush Morgan Upgrades Gamestop (GME) -10/08/09 at 10:59 AM CDTby Perry Rod

Calling Gamestop's guidance "conservative" and citing valuation, Wedbush Morgan senior analyst Michael Pachter raised his rating and price target for Gamestop to $34 and "Outperform". "We expect industry sales to return to positive territory in September, and think that GameStop is well positioned to recover as well. " Gamestop is up around 3% this mornin...