NEW YORK - Video-game maker Activision Inc. will likely post strong fiscal fourth-quarter growth when it reports this week, an analyst said Monday while raising a price target and adding the company to a list of preferred stocks.
| ATVI | 12.35 |
Piper Jaffray analyst Anthony N. Gikas boosted his price target on the Santa Monica, Calif., company to $35 from $31 and placed Activision on Piper Jaffray's Alpha list.
He kept a "Buy" rating on the shares.
The new target implies he expects shares to jump 29 percent above Friday's $27.16 close, and the Alpha grouping is a list of stocks expected to perform well over a short-time period.
Activision makes the widely popular "Guitar Hero" video game franchise, as well as the "Call of Duty" game series and other forms of electronic entertainment. The company is set to be acquired by Vivendi SA to form the world's largest online and console game publisher.
The company may prefer that current shareholders not participate in the $4 billion all-cash tender offer expected as the deal closes, and may move to boost shares above the tender price by releasing upbeat guidance, he said.
For the fourth quarter, Gikas raised his outlook to profit of 9 cents per share from 8 cents per share, and revenue outlook to $410 million from $400 million.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expect, on average, earnings of 5 cents per share on revenue of $364.8 million.
Activision is set to report fiscal fourth-quarter and annual results on Thursday.
Shares fell 29 cents to $26.87 in premarket trading Monday.

Taken from the Arabic name, means Palace of the Faith Light; is the largest resi...
The new chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell Plc faces the tallest order in Euro...
SpongeTech® Delivery Systems, Inc., the designer, producer and marketer of unique lines of reusable cleaning products for car care, child care, h...


Come and experience the trading platform that everyone talks about. Simple, fast and exciting.
Can predict currency pairs movements? Binary option trading is what you need. Click here.
Take profit from the markets roller coaster. No downloads, no commissions, no spreads.