Arvind Bhatia

Take Two Interactive reported stronger than expected results for the final quarter of their fiscal year and issued better than expected numbers for the first quarter of their fiscal year. However, their guidance for the full year of .75-$1.00 was below consensus of $1.29. Their revenue guidance was also below consensus.

Credit Suisse analysts reduced their price taget from $32 to $28 as a result. They now have a $1.00 EPS estimate for FY16 and a $3.24 EPS estimate for FY17, which was little changed from their previous estimates. Prior to earnings, Benchmark analysts had also reduced their price target despite a similar rosy view of FY17 for Take Two.

Meanwhile, Arvind Bhatia of Sterne Agee upgraded the stock from Neutral to Buy. Sterne Aghee is known as one of the largest investment banks not based on Wall Street. Take Two stock had been punished during the quarter and was down over 20% since their last earnings report. After and pre-market traders pushed the stock price up over 5% from the previous close.

Brean Capital's Todd Mitchell is also reported to have called Take Two guidance "conservative". They had accurately predicted "better-than-expected long-tail sales for Grand Theft Auto V and associated DLC revenue." They reduced their price target from $35 to $32. In the previous year, Take Two guided with similar numbers of .80-$1.05 and ended up with nearly $2 in earnings. The upside was largely due to the outperformance of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto titles.

Michael Pachter of Webush Securities raised his price target from $24 to $26, still the lowest target of all of Take Two's analysts. He stated, "Initial FY16 guidance was in-line with our expectations and reflects an underwhelming release slate."

Take Two also announced it raised its buyback program to 10 million shares.

Pictured: Arvind Bhatia, Sterne Agee