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What to Expect When Activision Blizzard Reports After the Close

Chris Lange

Published: August 2, 2018 11:20 am

Last Updated: March 13, 2020 10:11 pm

Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) is scheduled to report its most recent quarterly results after the markets close on Thursday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters are calling for $0.35 in earnings per share (EPS) and $1.38 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, the video game maker said it had $0.43 in EPS and $1.42 billion in revenue.

Over the summer, Wedbush released its Best Idea List and Activision Blizzard made one of the top spots. Wedbush ultimately believes that the company could earn $3.00 per share as early as this year by optimizing King’s untapped ad opportunity and monetizing its Overwatch League.

While Wedbush has modeled more modest earnings for 2018, the firm believes that Activision’s new investments have the potential to significantly expand its margins and profits for the next several years.

Wedbush has an Outperform rating for Activision and an $81 price target, implying upside of over 11% from the current price level.

Overall, Activision Blizzard has outperformed the broad markets with its stock up 17% in the past 52 weeks. In just 2018 alone, the stock is up 15%.

A few other analysts weighed in on Activision Blizzard ahead of the report:

• Needham has a Buy rating with a $90 price target.
• Wedbush has a Buy rating with an $81 price target.
• Piper Jaffray has an Overweight rating and an $84 target.
• Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating and an $80 target.
• KeyCorp has an Overweight rating with a $90 price target.
• Merrill Lynch has a Buy rating with a $76 target price.

Shares of Activision were last seen trading at $72.75, with a consensus analyst price target of $80.23 and a 52-week range of $57.29 to $81.64.