Scalper1 News
Mobile video game publisher Glu Mobile ( GLUU ) got a rise Thursday from the release of a new game featuring pop singer Britney Spears. However, it’s the big game publishers like Activision Blizzard ( ATVI ) and Electronic Arts ( EA ) that are winning in the mobile games market. Glu saw its low-priced, micro-cap stock rise 7% to 2.50 in afternoon trading on the stock market today , on the release of its latest celebrity game: “Britney Spears: American Dream.” The San Francisco-based company needs another hit along the lines of its genre-defining game, “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood,” to regain its footing. Glu’s sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis for three straight quarters. And the declines are accelerating — from a 2% decrease in Q3 2015 to a 16% drop in Q4 and a 22% fall in Q1. Glu has a miserable IBD Relative Strength Rating of 3, meaning it is in the bottom 3% for performance among all stocks over the last 12 months. Another publicly traded maker of mobile games, San Francisco-based Zynga ( ZNGA ), faces similar challenges. Its sales have stalled the last two quarters — falling 4% year over year in Q4 and increasing just 2% in Q1. Zynga is known for games such as “Words With Friends” and “Zynga Poker.” Like Glu, Zynga stock is low valued, trading near 2.50 and up a fraction Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, PC and console game giants Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts reported solid gains in their mobile game initiatives in the March quarter. Activision stock jumped to near its all-time high after the company posted better-than-expected first-quarter results on May 5. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company credited the upside surprise to newly acquired mobile game publisher King Digital Entertainment and its hot titles like “Candy Crush Jelly Saga.” Activision completed its purchase of King on Feb. 23. In Q1, King’s monthly active users rose 3% to 463 million from the prior quarter. King has had three of the top 15 highest-grossing titles in the U.S. mobile app stores for nine quarters in a row. EA stock climbed to a record high of 77.15 after the Redwood City, Calif.-based company posted better-than-expected results for its fiscal Q4 on May 10. Shares were down 1.5% Thursday afternoon, near 73.50. EA was the No. 1 most-downloaded mobile game publisher in 2015, with such popular games as “Madden NFL Mobile” and “Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes.” Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News