Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) Slips 0.69% Ahead of Earnings: What To Watch

Take-Two Interactive (TTWO ) saw its stock price slip slightly during regular trading hours Wednesday just one day before it is set to release its fiscal first-quarter 2019 financial results, which might signal that investors are worried about the video game firm. Yet, shares of TTWO are still up over 40% in the last year, so let’s see what we should really expect Thursday.

Take-Two expects its first-quarter net bookings to be in the range of $215 million to $265 million, driven by strength in Grand Theft Auto Online, Grand Theft Auto V, and NBA 2K18. The company is also in the midst of the inaugural season of its first esports league, which it started in partnership with the NBA. The NBA 2K league games can be streamed on Amazon’s (AMZN ) widely popular Twitch platform and highlights the growing importance of esports to gaming companies.

Rival Activision Blizzard (ATVI ) recently landed a deal with Disney (DIS ) for coverage of its Overwatch League. Furthermore, the global games market, made up of 2.3 billion gamers, is projected to climb by 13% in 2018 to hit $137.9 billion, based on an April Newzoo report. Meanwhile, the overall esports economy is expected to total $906 million in 2018, up from $696 million in 2017—with potential to hit $1.5 billion by 2020.

With all that said, Take-Two is projected to see its first-quarter revenues plummet by over 25% to hit $258.95 million. The firm is also expected to see its adjusted quarterly earnings fall 70% to $0.18 per share.

However, we still need to gauge how likely it is that TTWO can outperform its earnings estimate. Luckily we can turn to our exclusive Earnings ESP figure to do so.

Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter. The Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change.

This is done because, generally speaking, when an analyst posts an estimate right before an earnings release, it means that they have fresh information which could potentially be more accurate than what analysts thought about a company two or three months ago.

A positive Earnings ESP paired with a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better ranking helps us feel confident about the potential for an earnings beat. In fact, our 10-year backtest has revealed that this methodology has accurately produced a positive surprise 70% of the time.

Take-Two’s Most Accurate Estimate—the representation of the most recent analyst sentiment—is calling earnings of $0.14 per share, which is four cents worse than our current consensus estimate. This figure helps TTWO sport an Earnings ESP of -19.49% and a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), which means there is a good chance Take-Two falls short of our quarterly earnings estimate.

But Take-Two follows Sony (SNE ) and Nintendo’s (NTDOY ) strong quarterly results and has topped its quarterly earnings estimates in the trailing 10 periods. 

Make sure to check back for our full analysis of Take-Two’s actual results after market close Thursday.

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Facebook, Inc. Common Stock (FB) Given New $242.00 Price Target at Stifel Nicolaus

Facebook, Inc. Common Stock (NASDAQ:FB) had its price objective boosted by Stifel Nicolaus from $202.00 to $242.00 in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the social networking company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Argus increased their price objective on shares of Facebook, Inc. Common Stock to $214.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a buy rating and set a $242.00 price objective on shares of Facebook, Inc. Common Stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 10th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a buy rating and set a $215.00 price objective on shares of Facebook, Inc. Common Stock in a research note on Monday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Co reiterated a buy rating and set a $230.00 price objective on shares of Facebook, Inc. Common Stock in a research note on Thursday, April 5th. Finally, Morningstar set a $198.00 price objective on shares of Facebook, Inc. Common Stock and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Monday, March 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, forty-three have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. The stock presently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $223.75.

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Facebook, Inc. Common Stock traded up $1.85, reaching $209.94, during mid-day trading on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. 16,143,832 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,226,154. Facebook, Inc. Common Stock has a one year low of $149.02 and a one year high of $211.50. The firm has a market cap of $604.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 0.85.

Facebook, Inc. Common Stock (NASDAQ:FB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 25th. The social networking company reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.44. Facebook, Inc. Common Stock had a net margin of 40.03% and a return on equity of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $11.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.41 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.04 earnings per share. Facebook, Inc. Common Stock’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.0% compared to the same quarter last year. analysts anticipate that Facebook, Inc. Common Stock will post 7.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

In related news, VP David B. Fischer sold 5,138 shares of Facebook, Inc. Common Stock stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.07, for a total transaction of $822,439.66. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Colin Stretch sold 750 shares of Facebook, Inc. Common Stock stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.00, for a total transaction of $157,500.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 88,615 shares in the company, valued at $18,609,150. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 16,033,116 shares of company stock worth $3,041,961,441. 17.23% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of Facebook, Inc. Common Stock by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 149,137,226 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $23,830,637,000 after acquiring an additional 2,966,437 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Facebook, Inc. Common Stock by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,433,759 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $4,478,724,000 after acquiring an additional 1,010,306 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in shares of Facebook, Inc. Common Stock by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 15,125,319 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,669,014,000 after acquiring an additional 458,048 shares in the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P increased its stake in shares of Facebook, Inc. Common Stock by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 12,937,287 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,067,249,000 after acquiring an additional 58,561 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. increased its stake in shares of Facebook, Inc. Common Stock by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 12,587,578 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $2,221,204,000 after acquiring an additional 558,184 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.34% of the company’s stock.

Facebook, Inc. Common Stock Company Profile

Facebook, Inc provides various products to connect and share through mobile devices, personal computers, and other surfaces worldwide. Its products include Facebook Website and mobile application that enables people to connect, share, discover, and communicate with each other on mobile devices and personal computers; Instagram, a community for sharing visual stories through photos, videos, and direct messages; Messenger, a messaging application to communicate with other people, groups, and businesses across various platforms and devices; and WhatsApp, a mobile messaging application.

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