Activision Blizzard Company Profile (NASDAQ:ATVI)

Activision Blizzard trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "ATVI."

Activision Blizzard announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, April 11th 2017, which authorizes the company to buyback $1,000,000,000.00 in shares, according to EventVestor. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Activision Blizzard, Inc (NASDAQ:ATVI) issued its earnings results on Thursday, August, 4th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters' consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.03. The business earned $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. Activision Blizzard had a net margin of 16.17% and a return on equity of 17.30%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 112.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.13 EPS. View Activision Blizzard's Earnings History.

Activision Blizzard is scheduled to release their next quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday, November, 2nd 2017. View Earnings Estimates for Activision Blizzard.

26 analysts have issued 12-month target prices for Activision Blizzard's shares. Their forecasts range from $3.00 to $79.00. On average, they expect Activision Blizzard's stock price to reach $64.87 in the next year. View Analyst Ratings for Activision Blizzard.

Here are some recent quotes from research analysts about Activision Blizzard stock:

• 1. According to Zacks Investment Research, "Activision results continue to be driven by increasing digital revenues, King Digital buyout and strength in franchises. The company reported $1 billion from in-game revenues in the last reported quarter. Activision also raised guidance for the full year. The company’s attempts to become a broad-based media company are prudent in our view. Apart from launching a movie studio and consumer products division, the company is also strengthening its presence in the lucrative e-sports market. Activision had added twelve team for esports league for its newest franchise Overwatch. Over the past one year, share prices have outperformed the broader industry. Estimates have remained stable ahead of the upcoming earnings release. However, hit driven and competitive nature of the video game industry begets caution. " (10/6/2017)
• 2. Macquarie analysts commented, "Investor interest in eSports is rapidly building and we expect near-term newsflow from ATVI about the sale of teams for its coming Overwatch League to drive significantly more investor attention to the eSports theme... A crucial component to the success of the Overwatch League will be its viewership. As a game, Overwatch has been a tremendous success for ATVI, reaching 25mm registered players and a significant portion of Blizzard's $2.4B revenue. But as an eSport, though off to a solid start, Overwatch is still very much the newcomer among the top eSports games on the planet. On Twitch.TV (the leading eSports streaming site), Overwatch has consistently ranked the #5 most-viewed eSport behind League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Dota 2, and Hearthstone, and is averaging around 30K concurrent viewers compared to League of Legend's leading 130K. Overwatch does often drop below #5 on the charts, but this is almost always due to new game releases that only impact the rankings on their opening week." (3/22/2017)
• 3. Argus analysts commented, "Overwatch" and King Digital’s "Candy Crush." (2/15/2017)
• 4. Stifel Nicolaus analysts commented, "This past week, Activision Blizzard reported better-than-expected 4Q results, with non-GAAP EPS of $0.92 (vs. $0.83) which came in ahead of our $0.73 estimate, and consensus and guidance (implied) at $0.74. The company was able to overcome a disappointing Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare release, through a combination of digital momentum (+94%) and contributions from other franchises (i.e., Overwatch + World of Warcraft). And we thought management's preliminary guidance for '17 was in line/slightly better vs. what we had perceived to be a very wide range of expectations. Near-term, earnings may need to catch up with the share price, in our opinion. But looking further ahead, we think the stock can continue to work higher in anticipation of a 2H17 recovery for Activision Publishing + stronger line-up for '18, and thus we remain Buy-rated on ATVI." (2/10/2017)
• 5. Mizuho analysts commented, "A|B posted strong 4Q results with non-GAAP EPS of $0.92 coming in $0.19 ahead of Street expectations. In our view, this quarter highlighted the strength of the company's portfolio of games, which dramatically offset disappointing sales of this year's Call of Duty title. The company also provided guidance for 2017, with EPS expectations materially below consensus, but in line with our estimate. We believe investors were already there with us, and viewed the outcome as a positive catalyst. The company tends to be conservative with its guidance at the start of the year and we see upside potential throughout the year." (2/10/2017)

Activision Blizzard saw a increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 29th, there was short interest totalling 13,897,264 shares, an increase of 9.0% from the September 15th total of 12,753,802 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 6,024,335 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days. Currently, 2.0% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Some companies that are related to Activision Blizzard include Charter Communications (CHTR), Nike (NKE), Netflix (NFLX), Time Warner (TWX), Grupo Televisa S.A. (TV), Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA), Twenty-First Century Fox (FOX), Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS), Carnival Corporation (CUK), Carnival Corporation (CCL), Sony Corp Ord (SNE), Nintendo (NTDOY), Nintendo Co., Ltd (NTDOY), Adidas AG (ADDYY), Marriott International (MAR), Sands China (SCHYY), Electronic Arts (EA) and Panasonic (PCRFY).

Activision Blizzard's management team includes the folowing people:

• Brian G. Kelly, Chairman of the Board
• Collister Johnson, President, Chief Operating Officer
• Robert A. Kotick, Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director
• Thomas Tippl, Vice Chairman of the Board
• Spencer Neumann, Chief Financial Officer
• Eric L. Hirshberg, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Publishing Inc.
• Michael Morhaime, President and Chief Executive Officer of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
• Riccardo Zacconi, Chief Executive Officer of King Digital Entertainment Limited
• Dennis M. Durkin, Chief Corporate Officer
• Brian M. Stolz, Chief People Officer of Activision Blizzard

Activision Blizzard's stock is owned by a variety of of institutional and retail investors. Top institutional shareholders include Centre Asset Management LLC (0.02%). Company insiders that own Activision Blizzard stock include Brian G Kelly, Christopher B Walther, Dennis M Durkin, Eric Hirshberg, Michael Morhaime, Peter J Nolan, Riccardo Zacconi, Robert A Kotick, Robert J Morgado, Stephen G Wereb and Thomas Tippl. View Institutional Ownership Trends for Activision Blizzard.

Activision Blizzard's stock was sold by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including Centre Asset Management LLC. Company insiders that have sold Activision Blizzard stock in the last year include Brian G Kelly, Dennis M Durkin, Michael Morhaime, Riccardo Zacconi, Robert A Kotick and Robert J Morgado. View Insider Buying and Selling for Activision Blizzard.

Shares of Activision Blizzard can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages include Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Scottrade, Fidelity and Charles Schwab.

One share of Activision Blizzard stock can currently be purchased for approximately $61.99.