Activision Blizzard Q4 results: shares volatile on earnings revenue miss

Activision Blizzard’s revenue was down before rising slightly after a mixed fourth quarter(Q4) earnings report. The video game company’s shares are volatile in US after hours trading.

Activision Blizzard earnings:key figures

Activision Blizzard earnings

Activision Blizzard’s earnings per share were $0.84 and revenue was $2.84 billion. While revenue was up from 2018, it was less than the projected $3.04 billion.

Activision Blizzard earnings were down after sluggish sales in 2018. The home of games like Candy Crush and Call of Duty faces stiff competition from Epic Games and its wildly popular Fortnite game. In the wake of a downturn in sales, the video game company will lay off 800 employees as part of a restructuring strategy.

Bobby Kotick, chief executive officer(CEO) of Activision Blizzard, said that while Activision Blizzard earnings were worse-than-expected, he promised that leadership changes will improve the company.Former CEO, Mike Morhaime, left the company in October 2018.

‘While our financial results for 2018 were the best in our history, we didn’t realise our full potential. To help us reach our full potential, we have made a number of important leadership changes. These changes should enable us to achieve the many opportunities our industry affords us, especially with our powerful owned franchises, our strong commercial capabilities, our direct digital connections to hundreds of millions of players, and our extraordinarily talented employees’, said Kotick.

What do Activision Blizzard’s Q4 results mean for their share price?

Activision Blizzard’s Q4 results could mean volatility for its stock price. Activision Blizzard stock was down before rising briefly. The mixed results could result in continued unpredictability for its share price.

How do Activision Blizzard’s Q4 results compare to other electronic games’ stocks?

Activision’s Q4 results are mixed, similar to Electronic Arts(EA). Activision’s earnings were high, while earnings were down. EA’s stock went up despite the company’s high earnings and disappointing revenue.

What is Activision Blizzard’s dividend forecast?

Activision’s dividend forecast is expected to increase by 9% to $0.37 a share. The company predicts Adjusted earnings of $1.85 a share with revenue at $7 billion.

Though Activision is laying off employees, the corporation plans to hire more developers to work on their popular games.

‘The number of developers working on Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Overwatch, Warcraft, Hearthstone and Diablo in aggregate will increase approximately 20% over the course of 2019’, said Activision in its release.

Activision Blizzard will have many to make many changes before it can take gamers away from more popular options.