Shares of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) closed slightly lower on Wednesday, just one day before the company is scheduled to release its latest quarterly earnings report. With digital revenues on the rise and highly-anticipated releases like Call of Duty: WWII occurring during the ever-important holiday quarter, investors can bet that ATVI will command the attention of Wall Street when it reports.
So what does Activision have in store for its fourth-quarter report? Well, based on our current consensus estimates, we expect the company to report adjusted earnings of $0.93 per share and adjusted revenues of $2.61 billion. These results would represent modest year-over-year growth rates of 1.1% and 6.4%, respectively.
But earnings and revenue only paint part of the picture. In today’s quickly-changing entertainment landscape, video game publishers have to be on top of current trends—and ready to capitalize when the next trend emerges.
That means that investors will also be interested in how specific segments of Activision Blizzard’s overall business performed in the holiday quarter. To prepare for this, we can turn to our exclusive non-financial metrics consensus estimate file.
The Zacks Consensus NFM file contains detailed estimate data for business segment metrics and non-financial metrics reported by companies. The data is acquired from digest and contributing broker models and includes the independent research of expert stock market analysts.
First up, Activision Blizzard’s King Digital segment is always important to track. Activision shelled out $5.9 billion for King, the publisher of the popular Candy Crush mobile games, in a deal that closed in Feb. 2016. The acquisition was seen as a massive bet on the future of mobile gaming, and investors are still interested in seeing whether it has paid off.
Our consensus estimate file is calling for ATVI to report total King Digital revenues of $492 million, up about 12.9% year-over-year. Last quarter, the company reported growth of 15.0% in this segment. It is also worth noting that mobile gaming is significantly less impacted by cyclical trends compared to Activision’s other businesses, so year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter comparisons are a bit more useful here.
Meanwhile, our current consensus estimates are projecting that Activision Blizzard will post total Activision-brand revenues of $1.351 billion, which would represent growth of about 17.4% from the year-ago period. Activision is the business segment that published the new Call of Duty game, so investors will be hoping for a strong quarter on the back of a decent opening for the popular franchise’s latest iteration.
Finally, Activision Blizzard will hope to display strength in its Digital channel. The vast majority of gamers are buying their games online these days, especially considering the rise of PC gaming and the explosion of digital game sales on consoles.
Based on our current consensus estimates, we expect Activision to report total Digital revenues of $1.451 billion, accounting for nearly 55.6% of total revenues.
Make sure to check back here for our full analysis once Activision Blizzard reports tomorrow!
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Activision Blizzard, Inc (ATVI): Free Stock Analysis Report
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