Why Activision Blizzard Is Thrashing Earnings
James Woodson/ThinkStockActivision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) reported its second-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Tuesday. The company had $0.13 in earnings per share (EPS) on $759 million in revenue compared to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates that call for…
Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) reported its second-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Tuesday. The company had $0.13 in earnings per share (EPS) on $759 million in revenue compared to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates that call for $0.08 in EPS on $665.53 million in revenue. The same period from the previous year had $0.06 in EPS on $658.00 million in revenue.
The company updated guidance for both the third quarter and the 2015 full year. Activision Blizzard expects $0.14 in EPS on $930 million for the third quarter versus consensus estimates of $0.14 in EPS on $873.03 million in revenue. For the full year the company expects $1.30 in EPS on $4.6 billion in compared to consensus estimates of $1.23 in EPS on $4.47 billion in revenue.
In May 2015, Activision Blizzard paid a cash dividend of $0.23 per common share, a 15% increase year-over-year, totaling $170 million. The company did not make any share repurchases during the second quarter under its $750 million share repurchase authorization ending February 2017.
Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, commented on earnings:
Our strategic focus on expanding our franchise portfolio with captivating and original new intellectual property, innovating on new platforms, and expanding into new geographies is reflected in our results. We outperformed our Q2 targets and last year’s results on revenues, digital growth, and earnings per share. These strong results and the excitement for our future games have driven us to raise our full-year outlook.
Kotick continued:
Our audience size and the total amount of time people spend with our franchises continue to grow. In the second quarter, our monthly active users grew by 35% year-over-year, and the time our communities spent playing our games grew by 25% year-over-year.
At the end of the second quarter the company had $4.42 billion in cash and cash equivalents compared to $4.85 billion at the end of December 2014.
It’s worth mentioning that Activision Blizzard was briefly halted just after the close at 4:03 p.m. Eastern, and resumed trading soon after.
Shares of Activision Blizzard closed Tuesday up 0.6% at $25.67 on a 52-week trading range of $17.73 to $26.45. Following the release of earnings report, shares were initially up 6.2% at $27.25 just after the shares were released from their halt. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $28.69.
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Chris Lange is a financial and geopolitical writer with more than a decade of experience covering a myriad of topics. He has published thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St., with past coverage focused heavily on stocks, IPOs, healthcare, defense, global affairs, and technology.
His work has been quoted, or referenced by a number of outlets including Business Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, The Motley Fool, and many other publications. A graduate of Southwestern University, he studied business with a focus on investments and has previous experience in banking and startups.
When not reading or writing the news, he is following his passion for Lacrosse, playing chess, or building solar projects with his dad.
