Activision Blizzard Fails to Level Up With Q3 Results

November 9, 2018 by Chris Lange

When Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) reported its most recent quarterly results after the markets closed on Thursday, the company said that it had $0.42 in earnings per share (EPS) and $1.51 billion in revenue. Consensus estimates had called for $0.50 in EPS and $1.65 billion in revenue, and in the same period of last year, the video game maker said it had $0.47 in EPS and $1.62 billion in revenue.

During the past three months, all three of the company’s segments have delivered innovative major content releases for its global franchises. Activision launched “Call of Duty: Black Ops 4,” Blizzard released “World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth” and King launched “Candy Crush Friends Saga.”

A couple of the highlights from this quarter included $1 billion of in-game net bookings, and a record $3 billion in-game net bookings year to date. Also, King had two of the top-10 highest-grossing titles in the U.S. mobile app stores for the twentieth quarter in a row.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, the company expects to see EPS of $0.64 and revenues of $2.336 billion. Consensus estimates call for $1.34 in EPS and $3.06 billion in revenue.

CEO Bobby Kotick commented:

Activision Blizzard’s results for Q3 exceeded our prior outlook as we continue to entertain large audiences, drive deep engagement, and attract significant audience investment across our franchises. Our unique advantage continues to be our ability to create the most compelling interactive and spectator entertainment based on our own franchises, combined with our direct digital connection to hundreds of millions of customers, in over 190 countries. With these competitive advantages we continue to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment.

Shares of Activision Blizzard were last seen down 13% at $54.57, with a consensus analyst price target of $81.92. The stock has a 52-week trading range of $54.30 to $84.68.

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