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ZNGA: TO CALCULATE $ VALUE,MASSIVE TREASURE TROVE$ OF,INTELLECTUAL,PROPERTIE$ & GROWING
...FOLDERS REVEALS THAT MAIETTI TOOK OVER 14,000 FILES AND APPROXIMATELY 26 GB OF EXTREMELY SENSITIVE, HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL ZYNGA INFORMATION...
ZYNGA SUES 2 FORMER EMPLOYEES OVER ALLEGED MASSIVE DATA HEIST
Before returning work laptop, employee searched: “How to erase my hard drive.“
CYRUS FARIVAR - 11/29/2016, 6:40 PM
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Further Reading
How Zynga went from social gaming powerhouse to has-been
On Tuesday, Zynga sued two of its former employees. The company claims they stole confidential information and took it to their new employer, rival social gaming startup, Scopely.
Massimo Maietti and Ehud Barlach worked as higher-up employees for the San Francisco-based Zynga until they left in July and September, respectively. Scopely, which makes Dice with Buddies, Wheel of Fortune Free Play, and others, is also named as a co-defendant in the case.
According to Zynga’s 28-page civil complaint, Maietti was the creative director on “one of Zynga’s most ambitious soon-to-be released games, which goes by the code name ‘Project Mars.’” Barlach, for his part, was the general manager of Hit It Rich! Slots.
Neither Scopely, Maietti, nor Barlach immediately responded to Ars’ request for comment.
Both men are accused of taking a vast quantity of private data with them and successfully recruited former colleagues to join them at Scopely, which Zynga claimed was a violation of their employment contracts. (Scopely has several Zynga alumni, including Roy Rosenthal, the company’s general counsel. Rosenthal also did not respond to Ars.)
In recent months, as Zynga became increasingly aware that “key talent” was leaving the company, it commissioned a “forensic examination” of former employee’s computers, going back to Maietti.
As Zynga alleges:
On July 4, 2016—during the Independence Day holiday and just one day before he gave notice of his resignation of employment from Zynga–Maietti’s Internet history shows that Maietti used the Google Chrome browser on his Zynga-issued laptop to access a Zynga-owned Google Drive account. His browser history shows that he proceeded to download 10 Google Drive folders that he had permission to access, but only as necessary to perform his duties for Zynga. The Google Chrome browser “zipped” those ten files and downloaded them to his File Downloads folder. Once downloaded, forensic analysis shows that Maietti copied nine of those folders to a connected external USB device. The external USB device was disconnected from the computer, and Maietti then placed the .zip files in the Trash, while they remained on the USB device. On July 7, 2016, over 20,000 files and folders were located within the Trash but were subsequently deleted in a failed attempt by Maietti to cover his tracks.
The lawsuit goes on to explain that those zipped files “have identical names to those in Zynga’s Google Drive account” and consist of “extremely sensitive, highly confidential Zynga information,” including “wholesale copying of the Project Mars folder.”
Those documents also allegedly included “hundreds of detailed design specifications,” “unreleased game design documents,” and “financial-related information."
For his part, while he was still at Zynga, Barlach is accused of engaging in similar data copying and even telling a Scopely recruiter whom to target at Zynga.
In response, Scopely recruiter Christina Dunbar responded to Barlach by text: “Thanks!! I was saving that for your first day! LOL I would be happy to hear about anyone you think I should be trying to speak with. Obviously I know you have that clause about not taking people so I am always careful. ”
Scopely ended up hiring Derek Heck, a product manager at Wizard of Oz Slots and Willy Wonka Slots. The lawsuit also claims that Heck even “deleted more than 24,000 files and folders in the last month of his employment with Zynga, and referenced articles entitled ‘How to erase my hard drive and start over’ and ‘How to Erase a Computer Hard Drive - How To Articles.’”
Zynga settled a similar case filed against a former employee in 2013, but the new case against Scopely seems to be far larger in scale.
Steph Hess, vice president of communications for Zynga, declined to respond to Ars’ questions on the record and simply referred us to the lawsuit itself.
Source:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/11/zynga-sues-2-former-employees-over-alleged-massive-data-heist/
"The nine zipped folders taken by Maietti have identical names to those in Zynga's Google Drive account, but Maietti appended the date those files were stolen to the name of each folder. An analysis of the corresponding Google Drive folders reveals that Maietti took over 14,000 files and approximately 26 GB of extremely sensitive, highly confidential Zynga information....
Source:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-11-30-zynga-sues-two-former-employees-of-data-theft
ON A DIFFERENT SUBJECT, SEE LISTED BELOW SOME ZNGA OWNED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES:
[color=green]Zynga Patents Granted
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MODIFYING A GAME STATE OF A PLAYER OF A SOCIAL GAME
PATENT NUMBER: 9501203
Abstract: A system, computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program, and a computer-implemented method for modifying a game state of a player of a social game are presented. A first location of a first virtual object and a second location of a second virtual object in a virtual world of a social game are identified, where the first virtual object is associated with a first social contact of a player of the social game and the second virtual object is associated with a second social contact of the player of the social game. A location adjacency metric for the first virtual object and the second virtual object is determined using the first location and the second location. A social adjacency metric for the first virtual object and the second virtual object is determined. A game state for the player is modified using the location adjacency metric and the social adjacency metric.
Type: Grant
Filed: June 16, 2011
Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventor: William Henry Kelly Mooney
VIRAL PROGRESSIVE JACKPOT
PATENT NUMBER: 9495835
Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer programs are presented for executing a computer game. One method includes an operation for setting an initial value to the jackpot of a first player. The jackpot of the first player is increased based on each bet by the first player in the computer game. Additionally, the jackpot of the first player is increased based on each bet made by friends of the first player in the computer game. The friends of the first player have a social connection with the first player, and the jackpot of the first player is independent from bets in the computer game of players that are not friends of the first player. The method further includes an operation for resetting the jackpot of the first player to the initial value when the first player or when any friend of the first player wins the jackpot.
Type: Grant
Filed: May 30, 2012
Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventors: John Frederic Constable, Jon-Paul Emile Dumont, Michael J. Engle, Cor Robert Despota, James Chia-Ming Liu, Michael Anthony Fox
APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR AN ENGAGEMENT-TRACKING GAME MODIFIER
PATENT NUMBER: 9486708
Abstract: The APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR AN ONLINE BEHAVIOR MONITOR (“OBM”) transform user social-gaming behavioral pattern data via various OBM components into online social-gaming experience customizations. In one embodiment, the OBM may generate individual social-gaming activity timelines for a group of users within a geographical region using user online gaming pattern and social activity data. The OBM may calculate individual time-varying activity level graphs for the users, as well as an aggregate activity level graph. The OBM may identify an activity trough in the aggregate activity level graph, and an event in the geographical region corresponding to the activity level trough. Based on keywords corresponding to the event, the OBM may obtain product results from a product database.
Type: Grant
Filed: May 18, 2011
Date of Patent: November 8, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventors: Justin Driemeyer, Kevin Hagan, Matthew Ocko, Nick Tornow
CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN ASYNCHRONOUS MULTIPLAYER GAMES
PATENT NUMBER: 9480916
Abstract: A method and system to host a computer-implemented multiplayer game includes functionality to identify and resolve conflicts resulting from asynchronous game play. Client system game state information that changes responsive to in-game actions performed on a client system is intermittently synchronized with authoritative game state information, during which the in-game actions may be validated. Actions that fail a prerequisite check based on the authoritative game state information are analyzed in automated fashion to determine whether they are redundant actions that fail the prerequisite check owing to their having been performed with respect to outdated client system game state information. One or more remedial actions are performed for respective redundant actions, e.g., by allowing the redundant action and modifying the game state, by restoring spent resources to affected players, or by disallowing both the redundant action and an associated preempting action.
Type: Grant
Filed: December 17, 2015
Date of Patent: November 1, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventors: Scott G. Miller, Nimai Malle
FRIEND IMAGE DISPLAY IN MULTIUSER ONLINE GAMES
PATENT NUMBER: 9474959
Abstract: This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods to provide an in-game friend object in a game instance of a multiplayer online game uniquely associated with a host player. The friend object has a unique association with a player who is a guest player with respect to the host player's game instance. A state of the friend object is automatically altered, for example deteriorating at random intervals, and can be restored subject to performance of a maintenance object by the guest player, performance of the maintenance action being limited only to the guest player. The friend object may be a display object, such as a picture frame, that displays an image associated with the guest player.
Type: Grant
Filed: March 30, 2012
Date of Patent: October 25, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventors: Matt Danner, Jerome Collins, Travis Brady, Shannon O'Hara
Source:
http://patents.justia.com/company/zynga?list=patents
(PRIOR ENTRIES OF NOTABLE MENTION)
(as·sign·ee
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nounLaw
noun: assignee; plural noun: assignees
1.
a person to whom a right is legally transferred.
04/20/2016
ZYNGA Inc. patents:
Recent patent applications related to Zynga Inc. Zynga Inc is listed as an Agent/Assignee. Note: Zynga Inc may have other listings under different names/spellings. We're not affiliated with Zynga Inc, we're just tracking patents.
(Copyright properties not include.)
ARCHIVE: New 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 | Company Directory "Z" | Zynga Inc-related inventors
Search recent Press Releases: Zynga Inc-related press releases
Count Application # Date Zynga Inc patents (updated weekly) - BOOKMARK this page
1 20160101357 04/14/16 new patent Conflict resolution in asynchronous multiplayer games
2 20160101362 04/14/16 new patent Friend recommendation system
3 20160103826 04/14/16 new patent Localization framework for dynamic text
4 20160098161 04/07/16 Systems and methods for replenishment of virtual objects based on device orientation
5 20160098265 04/07/16 Apparatuses, methods and systems for a social networking application updater
6 20160093169 03/31/16 Assigning a secure room to a player in online poker game
7 20160067599 03/10/16 Online game with mechanic for combining visual display parameters
8 20160067601 03/10/16 Sequencing and locations of selected virtual objects to trigger targeted game actions
9 20160067605 03/10/16 Systems and methods for indicating positions of selected symbols in a target sequence
10 20160067610 03/10/16 Determining hardness quotients for level definition files based on player skill level
11 20160067613 03/10/16 Experimentation and optimization service
12 20160067615 03/10/16 Systems and methods for determining game level attributes based on player skill level prior to game play in the level
13 20160059129 03/03/16 Delivery of projections for rendering
14 20160062521 03/03/16 Notifying users of options to participate in meta games
15 20160045830 02/18/16 Adaptive task assignment for online games that uses player profiles
16 20160048250 02/18/16 Online asynchronous game with player-matching mechanic
17 20160048307 02/18/16 Systems and methods dynamic localization of a client device
18 20160042000 02/11/16 Rules-based engine for cross-promotion platform
19 20160042590 02/11/16 Slots game with improving bonus-winning odds
20 20160036847 02/04/16 Methods and systems for automated network scanning in dynamic virtualized environments
21 20160023111 01/28/16 In-browser emulation of multiple technologies to create consistent visualization experience
22 20160026343 01/28/16 Systems and methods for modifying input detection areas
23 20160016081 01/21/16 Location-based achievements framework
24 20160019743 01/21/16 Methods and systems for magnifying selection windows in roulette games and accessing custom wagering profiles
25 20160019744 01/21/16 Providing cinematic animation and visualized payoff in a roulette game
26 20160019752 01/21/16 Poker communities
27 20150370551 12/24/15 Dynamic update of applications as code is checked-in
Source:
stks.freshpatents.com/Zynga-Inc-nm1.php
POST #9602
ZNGA: TO,CALCULATE,VALUE,ZYNGA‘S,GROWING,TREASURE,TROVE$,INTELLECTUAL,PROPERTIE$
Zynga Inc patents:
Recent patent applications related to Zynga Inc. Zynga Inc is listed as an Agent/Assignee. Note: Zynga Inc may have other listings under different names/spellings. We're not affiliated with Zynga Inc, we're just tracking patents.
(copyright properties not include.)
ARCHIVE: New 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 | Company Directory "Z" | Zynga Inc-related inventors
Search recent Press Releases: Zynga Inc-related press releases
Count Application # Date Zynga Inc patents (updated weekly) - BOOKMARK this page
1 20150364008 12/17/15 Multi-hand bet with escalating payouts
2 20150364013 12/17/15 Money card in poker game
3 20150336002 11/26/15 Apparatus, method and computer readable storage medium for guiding game play via a show me button
4 20150332042 11/19/15 Methods and systems for enabling, tracking, and correlating anonymous user activity
5 20150334102 11/19/15 Network application security utilizing network-provided identities
6 20150325087 11/12/15 Side betting in blackjack game
7 20150317823 11/05/15 Rendering based on multiple projections
8 20150297987 10/22/15 Methods for using touch-screens to simulate balancing and manipulation of curved object during gameplay
9 20150298007 10/22/15 Systems and methods of automatic game creation
10 20150298008 10/22/15 Systems and methods of incentivizing game play
11 20150302682 10/22/15 Methods to determine luck profile of a user
12 20150290539 10/15/15 Approximated diffuse lighting for a moving object
13 20150283464 10/08/15 Notifying users of actions in cross-platform environments
14 20150288784 10/08/15 Sending and receiving configurable buckets of communications
15 20150283463 10/08/15 Systems and methods of dynamically selecting contacts and promoting products
16 20150273323 10/01/15 Systems and methods to provide kinetic disasters
17 20150273338 10/01/15 Methods and systems for backward compatability using a unified stock keeping identifier
18 20150258433 09/17/15 Low-friction synchronous interaction in multiplayer online game
19 20150251096 09/10/15 Apparatus, method and computer readable storage medium for collecting doobers in an electronic game
20 20150246287 09/03/15 Changing a virtual world based on real-world locations of players
21 20150231501 08/20/15 Systems and methods of managing game objects using multiple inputs
22 20150227296 08/13/15 System and method to communicate information to a user
23 20150229928 08/13/15 Image compression with alpha channel data
24 20150217197 08/06/15 Three dimensional operations in an isometric projection
25 20150221179 08/06/15 Identification of side pot participants in poker game
26 20150209667 07/30/15 Application failure management in computer- implemented online games
27 20150199078 07/16/15 Game pause state optimization for embedded applications
28 20150193333 07/09/15 Methods and systems for generating test information from a source code
29 20150186949 07/02/15 Systems and methods for providing targeted advertisements
30 20150174484 06/25/15 Gaming system for updating a presentation of a virtual game environment
31 20150174491 06/25/15 Updating virtual trading card characteristics
32 20150177931 06/25/15 Sequential selection of multiple objects
33 20150179022 06/25/15 Bad beat insurance
34 20150157948 06/11/15 Active social network
35 20150161763 06/11/15 2d animation from a 3d mesh
36 20150154789 06/04/15 Generation of intermediate images for texture compression
37 20150148127 05/28/15 Systems and methods for matching players of a game
38 20150141153 05/21/15 Push messaging architecture for online games
39 20150135161 05/14/15 Injecting features into an application
40 20150112782 04/23/15 Methods and systems for unified vault and rewards within real money applications
41 20150112783 04/23/15 Methods and systems for cross-platform promotion with real money applications
42 20150099566 04/09/15 Systems and methods to control movement based on a race event
43 20150099588 04/09/15 Systems and methods of distributing game network features
44 20150094127 04/02/15 Swipe-direction gesture control for video games using glass input devices
45 20150094150 04/02/15 Operation of a browser-incompatible application within a browser
46 20150080128 03/19/15 Content management system
47 20150080131 03/19/15 Systems and methods to present location-based leaderboards
48 20150072780 03/12/15 Embedding of games into third party websites
49 20150065241 03/05/15 Gaming facilitating item grouping and group actions
50 20150065243 03/05/15 Zoom contextuals
51 20150045104 02/12/15 Challenging players in online game to compete in modular game
52 20150045105 02/12/15 Slots game with improving bonus-winning odds
53 20150046247 02/12/15 Methods and systems for computer application incentivization based on reduced advertisement
54 20150038219 02/05/15 Nested online games for real money gambling
55 20150031447 01/29/15 Methods for processing online gaming using electronic devices
56 20150018079 01/15/15 Socially-mediated flash sales
57 20150018081 01/15/15 System and facilitating casino team play
58 20150011320 01/08/15 Apparatuses, methods and systems for a live online game tester
59 20150005070 01/01/15 Accessing a virtual media object within viewable location on gameboard
60 20140378232 12/25/14 Social network data analysis to generate incentives for online gaming
61 20140370974 12/18/14 Leveraging optional game features to remove in-game assets from a virtual economy
62 20140364236 12/11/14 System and trapping enemy units in a game
63 20140357345 12/04/14 Interacting with sponsored content to earn rewards
64 20140358260 12/04/14 Dynamically variable advertising incentive rewards in online games
65 20140323214 10/30/14 Systems and methods present a game variant
66 20140323225 10/30/14 Systems and methods for segment-based customization for notifications for users
67 20140323226 10/30/14 Systems and methods to send game invitations
68 20140315639 10/23/14 Providing social network content in games
69 20140295925 10/02/14 Level-balancing an online progression game
70 20140274341 09/18/14 Real money gambling payouts that depend on online social activity
71 20140274375 09/18/14 Systems and methods of following game-related content based on keywords
72 20140274376 09/18/14 Systems and methods of providing parental controls for game content
73 20140274408 09/18/14 Methods and systems for provisioning a game container within a cloud computing system
74 20140274409 09/18/14 Guild-dependent variation of player capabilities in a computer-implemented game
75 20140274410 09/18/14 Smart ping system
76 20140278844 09/18/14 Systems and methods relating to offline gameplay
77 20140253568 09/11/14 Methods and a distributed object renderer
78 20140256434 09/11/14 Asset transfers between interactive social games
79 20140247982 09/04/14 Generation of intermediate images for texture compression
80 20140248948 09/04/14 Sequential selection of multiple objects
81 20140243072 08/28/14 Providing offers for sales of combinations of virtual items at discounted prices
82 20140243101 08/28/14 Game supply delivery systems and methods
83 20140244761 08/28/14 Cross social network data aggregation
84 20140235312 08/21/14 Slots-fueled adventure
85 20140221092 08/07/14 Method and system for rendering virtual in-game environments
86 20140221101 08/07/14 Consolidating businesses in a gamespace for an online game
87 20140213358 07/31/14 Gaming platform providing a multi-move game operation
88 20140213372 07/31/14 Systems and methods for providing game gestures
89 20140194207 07/10/14 Game system providing custom game stories
90 20140187328 07/03/14 Asynchronous interactive game play
91 20140187333 07/03/14 Finding friends for multiuser online games
92 20140189676 07/03/14 Dynamic update of applications as code is checked-in
93 20140177838 06/26/14 Method and the secure storage of audio signals
94 20140179438 06/26/14 Apparatus and method with physical location check-in that triggers a status change in a virtual game
95 20140155141 06/05/14 Systems and methods to determine a game payment
96 20140155160 06/05/14 Gaming system providing a destructible game object mechanic
97 20140157246 06/05/14 Building cross-platform asynchronous games
98 20140148233 05/29/14 Methods and managing network linked gambling video games
99 20140126814 05/08/14 Image compression with alpha channel data
100 20140128153 05/08/14 Apparatuses, methods and systems for a trackable virtual currencies platform
101 20140121007 05/01/14 Playing a social game with automatic players
102 20140121027 05/01/14 Integration of multiple games
103 20140106858 04/17/14 Winning in a game an asset for another game
104 20140100020 04/10/14 Methods, apparatus, and systems for rewarding players of an online game
105 20140087886 03/27/14 Automated apparent responses
106 20140066176 03/06/14 Methods and systems for generating tailored game challenges
107 20140057725 02/27/14 Updating virtual worlds based on interactions between real-world items
108 20140051511 02/20/14 Gaming system for updating a presentation of a virtual game environment
109 20140051521 02/20/14 Secure, parallel, and independent script execution
110 20140045592 02/13/14 Delivery of projections for rendering
111 20140038726 02/06/14 Integration of multiple games
112 20140040987 02/06/14 Network application security utilizing network-provided identities
113 20140031132 01/30/14 Contextual in-game messaging system
114 20140024449 01/23/14 Graphic user interface for cooking game
115 20140024450 01/23/14 System and methods to display icons based on messaging activity
116 20140024460 01/23/14 Regular visitor to friend board in viral game
117 20140024461 01/23/14 Replacing players on a collaborative game task in an online game
118 20140024462 01/23/14 Rewarding participating players on a collaborative game task in an online game
119 20140019528 01/16/14 Validation of device activity via logic sharing
120 20140004953 01/02/14 Social network data analysis to generate suggestion metrics for online gaming
121 20140004954 01/02/14 Social network data analysis to provide news for online gaming
122 20140004955 01/02/14 Custom reward for viral help in game
123 20140004959 01/02/14 Sharing photos of a game board within an online game
124 20140006505 01/02/14 Social network data analysis to generate incentives for online gaming
125 20130344965 12/26/13 Apparatuses, methods and systems for an online game manager
126 20130344966 12/26/13 Method and system for providing video game content
127 20130339473 12/19/13 Real time analytics via stream processing
128 20130324224 12/05/13 Methods and managing network linked gambling video games
129 20130324225 12/05/13 Low-friction synchronous interaction in multiplayer online game
130 20130324233 12/05/13 Viral progressive jackpot
131 20130324240 12/05/13 Systems and methods of icon optimization in game user interface
132 20130324259 12/05/13 Rules-based engine for cross-promotion platform
133 20130324260 12/05/13 Cross-promotion api
134 20130324261 12/05/13 Real-time data services api
135 20130296039 11/07/13 Gaming platform utilizing a fraud detection platform
136 20130288757 10/31/13 Dynamic quests in game
137 20130260867 10/03/13 Transitioning between game and non-game features
138 20130252727 09/26/13 Apparatuses, methods and systems for providing access to a game area of an online game using a multi-level in-game currency platform
139 20130244792 09/19/13 Game environment utilizing a lock free memory system
140 20130231179 09/05/13 Leveraging social graphs with game play auto-neighboring
141 20130231181 09/05/13 Feed surfacing
142 20130231182 09/05/13 Systems and methods of reciprocation of game asset gifting
143 20130232199 09/05/13 Sharing an application configuration among social networks
144 20130225287 08/29/13 Synchronous and asynchronous game modes
145 20130217489 08/22/13 System and method to represent a resource object in a virtual environment
146 20130212396 08/15/13 Methods and systems for state synchronization over a non-reliable network using signature processing
147 20130190087 07/25/13 Three dimensional operations in an isometric projection
148 20130178281 07/11/13 Low-friction synchronous interaction in multiplayer online game
149 20130172083 07/04/13 Apparatus, method and computer readable storage medium for collecting doobers in an electronic game
150 20130165217 06/27/13 System and using a game to interact with television programs
151 20130165234 06/27/13 Method and system for matchmaking connections within a gaming social network
152 20130152043 06/13/13 Methods and systems for generating test information from a source code
153 20130144596 06/06/13 Localization framework for dynamic text
154 20130130762 05/23/13 Specialty within online game
155 20130123018 05/16/13 Integration of multiple games
156 20130116046 05/09/13 Method and system for rendering virtual in-game environments
157 20130088491 04/11/13 2d animation from a 3d mesh
158 20130091577 04/11/13 Methods and systems for automated network scanning in dynamic virtualized environments
159 20130079143 03/28/13 Expanding the gaming social network with unrelated players
160 20130059634 03/07/13 Apparatus, method and computer readable storage medium for guiding game play via a show me button
161 20130059662 03/07/13 Semi-synchronous multi-participant application updates
162 20130059663 03/07/13 Sharing items between multiple game participants
163 20130059664 03/07/13 Semi-synchronous multi-participant application updates
164 20130035158 02/07/13 Low-friction response in a social game
165 20130036064 02/07/13 Detached economy in online game
166 20130029760 01/31/13 Combining games based on levels of interactivity of the games
167 20130029766 01/31/13 Contextual in-game messaging system
168 20130005438 01/03/13 Socially-mediated flash sales
169 20130005466 01/03/13 Updating virtual worlds based on interactions between real-world items
170 20130005473 01/03/13 Clan wars
171 20120329560 12/27/12 Game supply delivery systems and methods
172 20120289339 11/15/12 System and placing players of a multiplayer game in a virtual world
173 20120264520 10/18/12 System and providing branded virtual objects in a virtual environment
174 20120226738 09/06/12 Simultaneous download of application file portions
175 20120077596 03/29/12 Apparatuses, methods and systems for a live online game tester
176 20120078394 03/29/12 Apparatuses, methods and systems for a virtual security camera
177 20120078395 03/29/12 Apparatuses, methods and systems for a virtual security camera
178 20120077580 03/29/12 Dynamic asset and obstacle generation in online games
179 20120071236 03/22/12 Apparatuses, methods and systems for a live online game tester
180 20120040743 02/16/12 Game-based incentives for location-based actions
181 20120030123 02/02/12 Customer service request evaluator
182 20120015715 01/19/12 Virtual playing chips in a multiuser online game network
183 20120015733 01/19/12 Game mechanics for gifting
184 20120015734 01/19/12 Interacting toys
185 20120015714 01/19/12 Apparatuses, methods and systems for a multi-level in-game currency platform
186 20120016796 01/19/12 Apparatuses, methods and systems for a trackable virtual currencies platform
Source:
stks.freshpatents.com/Zynga-Inc-nm1.php
ZNGA: 134.62% GROWTH EXPECTED BY ANALYSTS OVER NEXT,YEAR
Last year, their EPS growth was 48.50%
Earnings Per Share is computed by dividing the total profit by its total shares. If a company’s profit is $800 million and there are 40 million shares, then the EPS is $20.
PUTTING THE PEDAL TO THE METAL, CAN THIS STOCK’S GROWTH CONTINUE: ZYNGA, INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)
NOVEMBER 29, 2016 CSZ STAFF
Analysts are projecting Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) to grow at an accelerated rate over the next five years. Sell-side analysts are looking for the company to grow 134.62% over the next year and 30.00% over the next five years.
EPS measures what each share is worth and also indicates how much money their sharehoders would gain if the company was to pay out all of its profits. Earnings Per Share is computed by dividing the total profit by its total shares. If a company’s profit is $800 million and there are 40 million shares, then the EPS is $20. EPS is a great way to compare and contrast companies from the same industry. When a company shows a steady rising earnings trend, this indicates that the firm will have an advantage over companies with a more volatile earnings trend. Zynga, Inc.’s trailing 12- months EPS is -0.14. Last year, their EPS growth was 48.50% and their EPS growth over the past five years was -25.20%.
RECENT PERFORMANCE
Let’s start off by taking a look at how the stock has been performing recently. Over the past twelve months, Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s stock was 6.34%. Last week, it was 1.79%, 2.89% over the last quarter, and 10.89% for the past half-year.
Over the past 50 days, Zynga, Inc. stock was -5.10% off of the high and 6.85% removed from the low. Their 52-Week High and Low are noted here. -5.10% (High), 62.08%, (Low).
HISTORICAL GROWTH
Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s performance this year to date is 6.34%. The stock has performed 1.79% over the last seven days, 2.52% over the last thirty, and 2.89% over the last three months. Over the last six months, Zynga, Inc.’s stock has been 10.89% and 8.78% for the year.
FUTURE GROWTH ESTIMATES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Wall Street analysts are have a consensus analyst recommendation of 2.80 on the stock. This is based on a 1-5 scale where 1 represents a Strong Buy and 5 a Strong Sell. Brokerages covering the name have a $3.21 on the stock.
The advice provided on this website is general advice only. It has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on this advice you should consider the appropriateness of the advice, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs. Where quoted, past performance is not indicative of future performance.
Source:
cincysportszone.com/putting-the-pedal-to-the-metal-can-this-stocks-growth-continue-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga/76894/
ZNGA: PACHTER @ WEDBUSH SECURITIES, ZYNGA NOW WELL-POSITIONED FOR“DAWN OF TITANS” WITHIN NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS.
“PACHTER BELIEVES ZYNGA IS NOW WELL-POSITIONED FOR THE LAUNCH OF THE NEW GAME “DAWN OF TITANS” WITHIN THE NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS.”
“I THINK INVESTORS CAN STEP IN NOW AND RIDE IT UP BY 30–35 PERCENT IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS,” HE CONCLUDED.
Pachter: Zynga Is 'Worth A Shot'
Wayne Duggan , Benzinga Staff Writer
November 29, 2016 2:22pm
Michael Pachter, equity analyst for Wedbush Securities, recently joined PreMarket Prep to share his thoughts on Zynga Inc ZNGA 1.05%. According to Pachter, the battered gaming stock is well worth the risk at its current price.
'Revolving Door' Management
“They’re in their fifth year of a one- to two-year turnaround,” Pachter joked, pointing out the company’s revolving door of CEOs in recent years. However, he believes current management is on the right track.
“They’re paring away all the games that weren’t really making much money, so revenues have been stalled for three years in a row,” he explained.
Currently Well Positioned
However, Pachter believes Zynga is now well-positioned for the launch of the new game “Dawn of Titans” within the next couple of weeks.
“If you get a couple hundred million of revenue growth with improving margins, I think you get pretty dramatic EBITDA growth,” he said of Zynga’s new lineup.
Pachter currently has a $4.25 price target for Zynga and he believes shareholders could see significant near-term upside.
“I think investors can step in now and ride it up by 30–35 percent in the next couple of months,” he concluded.
Word Of Caution
Pachter added a word of caution about a bullish thesis that rests on the success of a game that has yet to be released.
“’Dawn of Titans’ might not work. If it doesn’t, I’m wrong,” he noted.
Source:
https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/16/11/8748970/pachter-zynga-is-worth-a-shot
ZNGA: BY 3,776.5% AMERIPRISE FINANCIAL INC. INCREASED,ITS,ZYNGA INC. POSITION
The Ameriprise Financial Inc. invests in 639,852 by purchasing Zynga Inc. (ZNGA) shares
November 29, 2016 Henry Williams
Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) by 3,776.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 656,795 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 639,852 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned about 0.08% of Zynga worth $1,635,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ZNGA. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its position in shares of Zynga by 190.6% in the second quarter.
Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 6,480,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,135,000 after buying an additional 4,250,000 shares during the period.
BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Zynga by 11.8% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 440,759 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,005,000 after buying an additional 46,567 shares during the period.
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in shares of Zynga by 1.5% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,138,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,597,000 after buying an additional 16,600 shares during the period. TIAA CREF Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Zynga by 0.6% in the first quarter. TIAA CREF Investment Management LLC now owns 2,270,869 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,178,000 after buying an additional 14,430 shares during the period. Finally, Teachers Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Zynga by 5.0% in the first quarter. Teachers Advisors Inc. now owns 657,110 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,498,000 after buying an additional 31,127 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.35% of the company’s stock.
Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) traded up 1.44% on Friday, hitting $2.82. The stock had a trading volume of 13,067,468 shares. Zynga Inc. has a 52-week low of $1.78 and a 52-week high of $3.04. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $2.87 and its 200-day moving average is $2.69. The company’s market cap is $2.49 billion.
ZNGA has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $4.25 target price on shares of Zynga in a report on Sunday, September 11th. Jefferies Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Zynga in a report on Monday, July 11th. FBR & Co restated an “outperform” rating and set a $4.25 price objective on shares of Zynga in a report on Tuesday, September 13th. Cowen and Company upgraded Zynga from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $3.50 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 3rd. Finally, TheStreet upgraded Zynga from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $3.21...
About Zynga
Zynga Inc is a provider of social game services. The Company develops, markets and operates social games as live services played on mobile platforms, such as iPhone Operating System (iOS) and Android and social networking sites, such as Facebook. The Company operates through developing and monetizing social games segment.
Source:
dailyquint.com/2016-11-29-ameriprise-financial-inc-invests-in-639852-by-purchasing-zynga-inc-znga-shares/
ZNGA: WALL STREET EXPECTS Q4 REVENUE $190 MILLION - $200 MILLION, earnings per share of $0.01.
Trending Stocks in Review: Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA), QVC Group (NASDAQ:QVCA)
By
Leah Bowers
-
November 24, 2016
Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)
The company announced its last quarter financial performance results on 11/02/2016. Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) belongs to NA sector that surged 2.15% in value when last trading session closed at $2.85. The company has a market capitalization of $2.54 Billion. The company’s stock has a Return on Assets (ROA) of -6.2 percent, a Return on Equity (ROE) of -7.3 percent and Return on Investment (ROI) of -7.7 percent. The company reached its 52-Week high of $3.04 on Oct 10, 2016 and 52-Week low of $1.78 on Feb 11, 2016.
Earnings per share (ttm) for Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) according to Finviz Data is $-0.14.
This company was Initiated by Morgan Stanley on 14-Jul-15 to Equal-Weight.
The 15 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Zynga Inc have a median target of 3.00, with a high estimate of 5.00 and a low estimate of 2.50. The median estimate represents a +5.26% increase from the last price of 2.85.
Financial History for Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA):
Following Earnings result, share price were DOWN 10 times out of last 19 Qtrs. In the last 27 earnings reports, the company has topped earnings-per-share estimates 66% percent of times. It has met expectations 3 times and missed earnings 1 times.
The consensus recommendation for Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is 2.4.
The rating scale runs from 1 to 5 with 5 indicating a Strong Sell,
1 indicating a Strong Buy
and 3 indicating a Hold.
The consensus recommendation 30 days ago for this company stood at 2.4. In comparison,
the consensus recommendation 60 days ago was at 2.33, and 90 days ago was at 2.4 respectively.
Future Expectations for Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA):
When the current quarter ends, Wall Street expects Zynga, Inc. to have earnings per share of $0.01.
Revenue is expected to range from 190 Million to 200 Million with an average of 193.19 Million.
Company Profile:
Zynga Inc. is the world’s largest social game developer with users playing their games which include CityVille, FarmVille, FrontierVille, Words With Friends, Mafia Wars, Zynga Poker, Cafe World, and Treasure Isle. Zynga Inc. games are available on a number of global platforms including Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo, the iPad, the iPhone and Android devices. They operate their games as live services, by which they mean that they continue to support and update games after launch and gather daily, metrics-based player feedback that enable them to continually enhance their games by adding new content and features. All of their games are free to play, and they generate revenue through the in-game sale of virtual goods and advertising.
Source:
factsreporter.com/2016/11/24/trending-stocks-in-review-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga-qvc-group-nasdaqqvca/
ZNGA: LOOKING BRIGHTER, CASH FLOWS INCREASING
CSR2 helped the company with the bookings. This shows that the management can turn a new game into a cash cow
Zynga is still a hold but the prospects are looking much brighter right now.
Zynga: I Am Becoming Optimistic
Nov.24.16 | About: Zynga (ZNGA)
Orthodox Investor
Summary
There has been an improvement in some key metrics.
Share buyback plan will not affect the overall cash position of the company.
The uptick in these metrics will result in improved cash flows.
Zynga's (NASDAQ:ZNGA) price movement over the last few months has been uninspiring. The shareholders have been waiting for a rally, which has failed to materialize. There has been a lot of changes in the management. These changes brought some optimism but the performance of business has not improved considerably. There has been some improvement in one or two metrics but the overall performance still falls short of expectations.
It looks like the management is still experimenting with different approaches. There are also a few positives for the company. The balance sheet remains strong and it might sound a little surprising for a technology company, but most of Zynga's value comes from its balance sheet. Cash balances are still strong and account for most of the total value of its business.
The company announced its third quarter earnings at the start of the month. Some of the metrics were poor. These metrics are usually used as standard in the sector. While daily and monthly active users declined, the more important metrics likemonthly unique users showed considerable growth.
Source: Quarterly Earnings Presentation
One of the key concerns that I have talked about in the past was the low monetization rate. Zynga had more than 66 million monthly active users but the paying customers were just 1% of the total users. This resulted in low revenues and cash flows. On this metric, the management has been able to make some serious progress. For the third quarter, the monthly unique payer (MUP) has gone over 1.3 million. This is the highest figures in the last five quarters, as can be seen from the above diagram. This was instrumental in driving operating cash flows for the quarter.
Source: Quarterly Earnings Presentation
This figure shows two of the most important metrics when it comes to gauging the money-making ability of a tech company. Again, Average bookings per daily active user and payer conversion are at the highest in the last five quarters. Payer conversion has gone up by a considerable margin of 50 basis points. This is a clear sign that the company is extracting more out of its user base. This is what I have said before that the payer conversion should be higher in order for the company to enhance its profitability. It looks like the management is finally working on a model which will allow it to generate more cash from its new and existing users.
Due to these developments, Zynga was able to generate more than $21 million in operating cash flows and over $18 million in free cash flows. Superior cash flow accretion resulted in over $32 million in nine-month operating cash flows and over $25.6 million in free cash flows. This goes on to further strengthen the cash position which is now over $870 million. At this moment, Zynga has per share cash of just below 98 cents. That accounts for more than 34% of the total value of the company. Zynga's R&D cash requirements are low and can be covered by the cash generated from its operations.
So, the best use of these reserves is to return some of the cash to shareholders. $200 million in share buybacks in the next two years seems a little conservative, in my opinion. If the uptick in payer conversion and average booking per daily active user continues, then the company will still have more than $700 million in cash at the end of this program. Assuming the stock price does not take off too quickly, there will be a considerable reduction in shares outstanding. I think the management will be opportunistic in executing this buyback program. However they do it, shareholders are going to benefit.
I am a bit optimistic about the future. My key concern about monetization is being addressed and the new games like CSR2 are doing well. There are more games in the pipeline. CSR2 helped the company with the bookings. This shows that the management can turn a new game into a cash cow. This bodes well for the future and there is more hope for the upcoming releases. I agree with the management about the turnaround getting momentum.
However, this is based on my optimism about Zynga being able to consistently monetize its user base and further improvement in key metrics such as payer conversion and ABPU. If these metrics are growing that means the company is able to increase bookings from its user base and the cash flows are increasing. Once the market sees a trend developing in these metrics, it will translate into stock price. Zynga is still a hold but the prospects are looking much brighter right now.
Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it(other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
14,938 people get ZNGA breaking news and analysis by email alert
Source:
seekingalpha.com/article/4026128-zynga-becoming-optimistic
ZNGA: GROWTH FORECAST, TRADERS WATCH LIST
ISTREETWIRE.COM
Press Releases
Traders Watch list: ... Zynga, Inc. (ZNGA),...
Mark Nelson1 hour ago
The RSI indicator value of 47.78, lead us to believe that it is a hold …
Source:
istreetwire.com/2016/11/22/traders-watch-list-slm-corporation-slm-zynga-inc-znga-new-residential-investment-corp-nrz/
MARKETS DAILY
The Growth Forecast For Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)
Nov 21, 2016 Markets Staff
Wall Street renowned brokerages following Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) have now given a mean price target of $3.338 on its stock. After accomplishing a methodical study, the analysts have specified a target price range.
The intense high range is put at $5 while the lowest price is $2.5. It is the mean price reached following the Zacks poll. In addition to this price estimate, the leading brokerages have announced the earnings estimates for Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA).
For the quarter, the forecasted EPS stands at $-0.03 for Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA). The report is likely to be publicized on or around 2017-02-08. As per the latest update, the firm’s EPS came at $-0.03 for the period ended 2016-09-30.
Zacks study examines the projections given by renowned brokerages in the industry. The hold, buy and sell recommendations are compiled to get an average rating on a 1-5 scale. It is a reducing scale, which can be conveniently decoded by shareholders. Brokers deploy unique mechanisms to get individual Buy/Sell references.
On the contrary,
Zacks gets a consensus analyst rating on the stock. Value scores approaching towards 1 means a buy recommendation
and rating of 5 is considered bearish for stock.
Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s rating score is 2.4 based on 9 stock views.
Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) probably will achieve EPS of $-0.09 in next year. The experts have a positive EPS target of $-0.08 for the company while the lowest estimate for the year is set at $-0.09 year.
Source:
http://www.themarketsdaily.com/analyst-actions/the-growth-forecast-for-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga-9/227271/
ZNGA: CRITICAL PIVOT POINTS, next resistance, next support
Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) Critical Pivot Points as of 2016-11-16
A New Kind of Stock Chart: Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) Critical Pivot Points
Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) Critical Pivot Points as of 2016-11-16
(ZNGA Stock Price as of Publication: $2.83)
This is a real time view of the critical technical pivot points for Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) . The technical pivot points we look at all surround the stock price movement from the last 10-trading days through the last year. Here are the pivots, starting with the tightest measures of support and resistance, and then moving to the various moving averages and annual range.
Zynga Inc Pivot Points
Current Price $2.83
Technical Support $2.73
Technical Resistance $2.89
52 Week Low $1.78
10-day Moving Average $2.81
50-day Moving Average $2.85
200-day Moving Average $2.58
52 Week High $3.04
Next we move to a graphical representation of the critical technical pivot points.
You can hover over the points to see the actual prices.
Zynga Inc Pivot Points Scatterplot
(a new stock chart, built for traders)
Yr Low200-day50-day10-day$2.85$2.83Yr High52 WkLowBCDPriorCloseZNGANow52 WkHigh0246810
The green pivot point to the far right is the 52 week high.
The red pivot point to the far left is the 52 week low.
The blue pivot point is the current stock price.
The three pivot points in the middle represent the moving averages.
CONCLUSION
The next resistance pivot point is $2.85.
The next support pivot point is $2.81.
This is a new kind of stock chart – one built for traders that bypasses the weaknesses of only looking at a time series as it shortens the time to conclusion about a stock's critical technical position.
Pivot Point Summary
Look how easily we can see that the current price (the blue points) is in between all of the purple dots, which are the 200-, 50- and 10-day moving averages, respectively, pointing to the proximity of the next critical pivot point.
The stock price is above the 200-day moving average
The stock price is below the 50-day moving average
The stock price is above the 10-day moving average
A New Kind of Stock Chart: For the Trader
This scatterplot for Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) , with the technical pivot points marked as points in time rather than a time series, is the next evolution of stock chart.
You can get this same chart for any stock here:
Source:
http://news.cmlviz.com/2016/11/16/a-new-kind-of-stock-chart-zynga-inc-nasdaq-znga--critical-pivot-points.html
ZNGA: WHAT WALL STREET IS SAYING!
WHAT WALL STREET IS SAYING ABOUT ZYNGA, INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)
BY
ELBERT EDWARDS
-
November 14, 2016
Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) stock is presently standing at about $2.89 and lots of equity research firms seem to have a target price set on the stock. The median one-year price target of 14 analysts covering the company is $3.00, which suggests the stock could still rise over 4 percent.
The highest analyst price target is $5.00, which implies a rally of 27 percent. And a quick view of analyst notes show that 3 are rating the stock a buy while 2 rate ZNGA a strong buy. There are 8 equity research firms advocating a Hold and 0 consider it Sell...
Source:
theindependentrepublic.com/2016/11/14/what-wall-street-is-saying-about-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga-4/
ENGELWOOD DAILY
Where Will Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) Peak? Brokerage House Targets in Focus
by Engelwood Staff — November 16, 2016
Wall Street analysts covering Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) shares are predicting that the stock will trade between $2.5 and $5 within the next year. This is the top price point and lowest from the analysts taken into consideration by Zacks Research. The mean consensus price target currently stands at $3.338.
Each of the analysts also offer Buy/Sell/Hold recommendations on the stock. At the time of writing, the shares have an average analyst rating of 2.4.
A low number between 1 and 2 indicates a Buy or Strong Buy.
A 3 represents a Hold, while a 4 or 5 represents a Sell...
Source:
http://www.engelwooddaily.com/where-will-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga-peak-brokerage-house-targets-in-focus/879738/
Mobile Gaming Stocks Posting Strong Performance Results Behind Continuous Stream of New Products and Innovative Apps
News provided by
MarketNewsUpdates.com
Nov 14, 2016, 08:30 ET
CORAL SPRINGS, Florida, November 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA), a leading social game developer, recently announced financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2016. In addition to today's press release, a copy of our Q3 2016 Quarterly Earnings Letter, which outlines our Q3 2016 financial results and business outlook, is available on our website at http://investor.zynga.com. Zynga management will host a live Q&A session at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time) today to discuss Zynga's Q3 2016 performance.
"In Q3, we executed well on our core business and our new launches. Our outperformance in the quarter was due to our over-delivery on CSR2 and advertising.
Source:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mobile-gaming-stocks-posting-strong-performance-results-behind-continuous-stream-of-new-products-and-innovative-apps-601090925.html
ZNGA: PLENTY OF UPSIDE POTENTIAL, A HOLD,WITH,A,VIEW,BUY
ISTREETWIRE
Press Releases
Three Movers to Watch for: Zynga, Inc. (ZNGA), DR Horton Inc. (DHI), Philip Morris International, Inc. (PM)
Nicole DeMars 22 mins ago
Zynga, Inc. (ZNGA) grew with the stock adding 3.21% or $0.09 to close at $2.89 on active trading volume of 7.99M compared its three months average trading volume of 12.93M. The San Francisco California 94103 based company operating under the Multimedia & Graphics Software industry has been trending up for the last 52 weeks, with the shares price now 17% up for the period and up by 7.84% so far this year. With price target of $3.21 and a 62.36% rebound from 52-week low, Zynga, Inc. has plenty of upside potential, making it a hold with a view buy.
Zynga Inc. develops, markets, and operates social games as live services played on the Internet, social networking sites, and mobile platforms in the United States, North America, Asia, and the European Union. It offers its online social games primarily under the Slots, Words With Friends, Zynga Poker, and FarmVille franchises. The company?s games are accessible on mobile platforms, Facebook, and other social networks, as well as Zynga.com. It also provides advertising services to advertising agencies and brokers. The company was formerly known as Zynga Game Network Inc. and changed its name to Zynga Inc. in November 2010. Zynga Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Source:
istreetwire.com/2016/11/14/three-movers-to-watch-for-zynga-inc-znga-dr-horton-inc-dhi-philip-morris-international-inc-pm/
Stocks NEWS
• CONSUMER GOODS
• DIVERSIFIED OIL & GAS
• HEALTH CARE
• RISING STOCK
RISING STOCK
Worth Watching Stocks in Queue:Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA), D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI)
November 14, 2016 Barbara Hurley
ZNGA, Zynga
On Friday, Shares of Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA), added 3.21% and closed at $2.89 in the last trading session. The last trading range of the stock ranges between $2.75 and $2.90. The company’s Market capitalization is $2.64 Billion with the total Outstanding Shares of 772.57 million. Zynga Inc. develops, markets...
Source:
http://stockznews.com/zynga-inc-nasdaqznga-d-r-horton-inc-nysedhi/
ZNGA: PAYING USERS UP BY 44%, MONTHLY USERS UP BY 14%
"Therefore, Zynga's user base seems to be recovering..."
Here's How Zynga Is Better Monetizing Its User Base
November 10, 2016, 03:17:48 PM EDT By Trefis Team, Trefis
Zynga ( ZNGA ) reported an 11% decline in revenue from online games in the third quarter, which was partially offset by a 7% increase in advertising revenue in the same period. This decline in online games revenue has been fueled by the drastic decline in the company's user base over the last twelve months. In the third quarter, Zynga's user base declined on both the web and mobile platforms, with monthly active users (MAUs) declining 13% year-over-year (y-o-y) to 66 million.
However, this was better than the second quarter this year, when the company had 61 million MAUs. Also, the company was able to increase its average monthly unique users (MUUs) as well as its average monthly unique payers (MUPs) both y-o-y and quarter-over-quarter to 57 million and 1.3 million, respectively. Therefore, Zynga's user base seems to be recovering from the drastic user declines suffered in the last year, and the company is monetizing its existing user base much better. Below we explore this further:
1. Daily user engagement (DAUs/MAUs) increased: Even though Zynga's monthly active user base declined by about 12% in Q3 2016, its daily active user count was almost constant. This shows some stickiness in the company's loyal active user base. MAUs are also likely to improve in the near term with the launch of new games such as CSR 2 and FarmVille: Tropic Escape.
2. Improvement in payer conversion rate (MUPs/MUUs): The stickiness of Zynga's loyal user base can also be gauged from the fact that despite a 12% decline in MAUs, its monthly unique users actually increased by 14% and its monthly unique paying users increased by 44%. This helped the company improve its payer conversion rate from 1.7% in Q3 2015 to 2.3% in Q2 2016.
3. Growth in average daily bookings per MAU (Monthly Bookings/Average MAUs): One of the most positive developments for Zynga over the last year has been its ability to generate higher bookings per active user. Despite a 12% y-o-y decline in MAUs in Q3 2016, its bookings increased 11% to around $197 million, translating into booking per average user of $3.00 in Q3 2016 compared to bookings per average user of $2.40 in Q3 2015.
Please refer to our complete analysis for Zynga here .
Interactive Institutional Research (Powered by Trefis):
Global Large Cap | U.S. Mid & Small Cap | European Large & Mid Cap | More Trefis Research
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Source:
www.nasdaq.com/article/heres-how-zynga-is-better-monetizing-its-user-base-cm707435
ZNGA: RAISED TO BUY, IN NOTE TO INVESTORS, WEDNESDAY
MIDEAST TIMES
Zynga Inc. (ZNGA) Raised to Buy at Zacks Investment Research
Posted by Hasmir Abdula on Nov 9th, 2016
Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday. The firm currently has a $3.25 price objective on the stock. Zacks Investment Research’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 12.85% from the company’s current price.
Source:
www.mideasttime.com/zynga-inc-znga-raised-to-buy-at-zacks-investment-research/1386389.html
ZNGA: $5.00, $4.25, $3.50, $3.21, and $3.00...
ZYNGA’S (ZNGA) “HOLD” RATING REITERATED AT JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
POSTED BY CHRIS COPELAND ON NOV 8TH, 2016
JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated their hold rating on shares of Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) in a research report report published on Thursday morning.
ZNGA has been the subject of several other research reports.
FBR & Co restated an outperform rating and issued a $4.25 price objective on shares of Zynga in a research note on Tuesday, September 13th.
Cowen and Company upgraded shares of Zynga from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $3.50 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 3rd.
Jefferies Group restated a buy rating and issued a $5.00 price objective on shares of Zynga in a research note on Tuesday, September 6th.
Pacific Crest restated a hold rating on shares of Zynga in a research note on Friday, August 5th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a neutral rating and issued a $3.00 target price on shares of Zynga in a report on Saturday, August 6th.
Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $3.21…
Source:
https://baseballnewssource.com/markets/zyngas-znga-hold-rating-reiterated-at-jpmorgan-chase-co/209913.html
ZNGA: EFFECTIVE MOVER TO SEE, STOCK FORMED DOUBLE TOP PATTERN
HOTSTOCKSPOINT
Business News
EFFECTIVE MOVER TO SEE- ZYNGA INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)
NOVEMBER 8, 2016 ROBERT EBELLING 0 COMMENT NASDAQ:ZNGA, ZNGA, ZYNGA INC.
ZNGA Stock Price Comparison to Moving Averages:
USA based company, Zynga, Inc.’s (ZNGA)’s latest closing price distance was at 6.56% from the average-price of 200 days while it maintained a distance from the 50 Day Moving Average at -3.83% and -4.16% compared with the 20 Day Moving Average.
Analysts Mean Rating:
Analysts’ mean recommendation for Zynga, Inc.’s (ZNGA) stands at 2.80. Rating Scale; where 1.0 rating means Strong Buy, 2.0 rating signify Buy, 3.0 recommendation reveals Hold, 4.0 rating score shows Sell and 5.0 displays Strong Sell signal.
Performance Review:
To review the ZNGA previous performance, look at its past history, which highlighted below:
During last 5 trades the stock sticks almost -2.85%.
During last one month it showed the change of -7.14%.
During last 3 month it remained at -0.73%.
Along with these its year to date performance is standing at 1.87%.
Important Technical Indicators:
ATR value of company was 0.10 and Relative Strength Index (RSI) was 41.79. The stock volatility for week was 4.64% while for month was 3.25%.The stock, as of last close, traded 53.37% to its 52 week low and was changed -10.20% from its 52 week high. Beta factor, which measures the riskiness of the security, was observed as 1.31. ZNGA’s value Change from Open was at -1.09% with a Gap of 1.10%.
Earnings per share Details about ZNGA:
EPS in next five year years is expected to touch 30.00% while EPS growth in past 5 year was -25.20% along with sales growth of 5.10% in the last five years.
EPS growth in next year is estimated to reach 195.65% while EPS growth estimate for this year is set at 48.50%.
The forward P/E ratio stands at 40.15. The price to sales ratio is 17.
Zynga, Inc.’s (ZNGA)’s Stock Price Trading Update:
Zynga, Inc.’s (ZNGA), a part of Technology sector and belongs to Multimedia & Graphics Software industry; ended its day with no change 0.00% and finalized at the price of $2.73. During its last trading session, Stock traded with the total exchanged volume of 13.87 million shares. The average volume stands around 12.86 million shares. The average numbers of shares are traded in a security per day, during the recent 3-month period. The stock has relative volume of 1.08. Relative volume is ratio between current volume and 3-month average value, intraday adjusted.
Analysts are projecting that Zynga Inc. (ZNGA) to hit $3.20 Price Target in next 52-weeks, average price is come up through the consensus of analysts. Highest price target is set at $5.00 however lowest price target estimated by analysts is $2.50. The Median price target for the stock is set at $3.00.
Currently Zynga Inc. (ZNGA) grabbed an average recommendation of “ Hold ” from analysts. The stock has been suggested as “Buy” from “5? Analysts”. “1” rated “Sell” for the company. “8” said the company as a “Hold”. Overweight rating was given by “0” and Underweight rating was given by “2”.
Source:
www.hotstockspoint.com/effective-mover-to-see-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga/
REVIEW FORTUNE
Analysts: Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) stock is worth $3.19
By Sara Cox -
November 8, 2016
Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA), with -2.85% losses in previous 5 sessions, is under coverage of 16 analysts who collectively assign a hold rating on stock. 5 of the brokerages firms have a buy or better rating; the 0 sells versus 3 underperforms. The 15 stock analysts who cover the stock have an average PT at $3.19, with individual targets in the range of $2.5 to $5. The shares ended last trade at $2.73, implying that Wall Street analysts see shares climbing about 16.85 per cent in 12 months’ time.
Insider Trading News: Insiders at the company look pessimistic about the outlook as they seem to offload shares while they have 1.87 jumped so far this year. A General Counsel, Sec. and SVP at Zynga, Inc. (ZNGA) sold shares in a trading activity completed on Tuesday October 18, 2016. Shah Devang offloaded 40,821 shares in the company at a per-share price of $2.81 and ended up generating $114,710 in proceeds. Shah Devang retains 49,740 shares in the stock after this transaction. A General Counsel, Sec. and VP in the company, Shah Devang, on Monday September 19, 2016 collected $14,770 from the sale of 5,094 shares at a per-share price of $2.81. Insiders are expected to have better knowledge about the health and prospects of their company, which is why insiders’ move deserves attention.
Historical Quarterly Earnings: Last quarter, Zynga, Inc. generated nearly $196.72M in sales and net income of $0.01/share. That compares with the mean forecast $187.23M and $0.01/share, respectively. For the prior quarter revenue for the stock hit $174.65M, with EPS at 0.
Zynga, Inc. (ZNGA) Analyst Rating News
Morgan Stanley is following shares of Zynga, Inc. (ZNGA), so its rating change is noteworthy. The company stock was initiated at Equal-Weight, wrote analysts at Morgan Stanley, in a research note issued to clients on Tuesday July 14, 2015. There was another key research note provided by Needham on Friday November 07, 2014. The firm lifted its rating on ZNGA from Hold to Buy.
Price Potential: Even though the stock has posted 0% fall in value, its new closing price reflects a -10.2% fall in value from company’s one year high of $3.04. The stock is currently holding below its 50-day SMA of $2.86 and above its 200-day SMA of $2.7. Over the last 3 months and over the last 6 months, the shares of Zynga, Inc. (ZNGA), have changed -0.73% and 7.91%, respectively.
Source:
http://reviewfortune.com/2016/11/08/analysts-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga-stock-is-worth-3-19/
CHESTER INDEPENDENT
NOTABLE CHART ACTION: COULD ZYNGA INC INCREASE EVEN MORE? THE STOCK FORMED DOUBLE TOP PATTERN
NOVEMBER 8, 2016 ADRIAN MCCOY
The chart of Zynga Inc (ZNGA) shows a double top with $4.54 target or 62.00% above today’s $2.80 share price. The 9 months chart pattern indicates low risk for the $2.50B company. It was reported on Nov, 8 by Finviz.com. If the $4.54 price target is reached, the company will be worth $1.55 billion more. Double tops are rare but powerful chart patterns. About 3.44 million shares traded hands. Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) has risen 18.70% since April 5, 2016 and is uptrending. It has outperformed by 16.74% the S&P500.
Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) Ratings Coverage
Out of 8 analysts covering Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA), 3 rate it a “Buy”, 1 “Sell”, while 4 “Hold”. This means 38% are positive. Zynga has been the topic of 18 analyst reports since August 7, 2015 according to StockzIntelligence Inc. The stock of Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) has “Buy” rating given on Tuesday, February 9 by Benchmark. The firm has “Underperform” rating given on Friday, August 7 by Credit Suisse. The company was maintained on Friday, August 7 by Wedbush. The rating was initiated by Oppenheimer with “Perform” on Thursday, November 12. The firm has “Hold” rating given on Friday, August 7 by Robert W. Baird. As per Monday, August 10, the company rating was maintained by Bank of America. The rating was maintained by Pacific Crest on Monday, August 10 with “Equal Weight”. On Monday, August 10 the stock rating was maintained by Goldman Sachs with “Neutral”. The stock has “Outperform” rating given by Wedbush on Thursday, February 11. The firm earned “Equal Weight” rating on Monday, August 10 by Morgan Stanley.
According to Zacks Investment Research, “Zynga Inc. is the world’s largest social game developer with users playing their games which include CityVille, FarmVille, FrontierVille, Words With Friends, Mafia Wars, Zynga Poker, Cafe World, and Treasure Isle. Zynga Inc. games are available on a number of global platforms including Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo, the iPad, the iPhone and Android devices. They operate their games as live services, by which they mean that they continue to support and update games after launch and gather daily, metrics-based player feedback that enable them to continually enhance their games by adding new content and features. All of their games are free to play, and they generate revenue through the in-game sale of virtual goods and advertising.”
Insitutional Activity:
The institutional sentiment increased to 1.14 in Q2 2016. Its up 0.49, from 0.65 in 2016Q1. The ratio improved, as 22 funds sold all Zynga Inc shares owned while 50 reduced positions. 29 funds bought stakes while 53 increased positions. They now own 509.52 million shares or 7.17% more from 475.43 million shares in 2016Q1.
First Republic Invest Management, a California-based fund reported 10,002 shares.
New York State Common Retirement Fund last reported 1.70M shares in the company. California State Teachers Retirement Sys last reported 0.01% of its portfolio in the stock. Citigroup Inc has 0% invested in the company for 91,219 shares. Voya Investment Management Lc last reported 0% of its portfolio in the stock. Goldman Sachs holds 0% or 1.09M shares in its portfolio. Prudential has 0% invested in the company for 82,870 shares.
Parkwood Limited Liability Com owns 184,519 shares or 0.08% of their US portfolio.
Kcg Hldgs holds 0.06% of its portfolio in Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) for 1.08 million shares.
The Connecticut-based Yakira Cap Management has invested 0.04% in Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA).
Mark Asset has 0.37% invested in the company for 505,895 shares.
The Pennsylvania-based Susquehanna Grp Inc Llp has invested 0% in Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA).
Contour Asset Limited Company holds 33.35M shares or 5.63% of its portfolio.
Edge Wealth Limited Liability last reported 1,214 shares in the company. Price T Rowe Associate Inc Md has invested 0% of its portfolio in Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA).
Insider Transactions: Since May 15, 2016, the stock had 0 insider buys, and 10 selling transactions for $1.84 million net activity. On Wednesday, June 15 GIBEAU FRANK D sold $414,996 worth of the stock or 159,614 shares. Another trade for 6,016 shares valued at $13,292 was made by Quejado Michelle on Wednesday, June 15. On Wednesday, June 15 the insider Shah Devang sold $570,459.
ZNGA Company Profile
Zynga Inc., incorporate on October 26, 2007, is a well-known provider of social game services. The Firm develops, markets and operates social games as live services played on mobile platforms, such as iPhone Operating System (iOS) and Android and social networking sites, such as Facebook. The Firm operates through developing and monetizing social games segment. The Firm has developed various social games, including games in its Slots, Words With Friends, Zynga Poker and FarmVille franchises. The Firm also launched various games on mobile and Web, including Words on Tour and FarmVille: Harvest Swap in the Casual category; Black Diamond Casino and Princess Bride Slots in the Social Casino category; Empires & Allies in the Action Strategy category, and Mountain Goat Mountain.
Source:
http://www.chesterindependent.com/2016/11/08/notable-chart-action-could-zynga-inc-increase-even-more-the-stock-formed-double-top-pattern/
ZNGA: OUTPERFORM RATING RECONFIRMED, ANALYSTS AT WEDBUSH; WITH $4.25 TARGET,(128.49 % from the stock close price)
Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) Outperform Rating Reconfirmed by Analysts at Wedbush; With $4.25 Target
Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) Rating Kept
The financial firm have set price target of $4.25 on Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) shares. This is 128.49 % from the stock close price. In an analyst report revealed on 11 February, Wedbush kept their Outperform rating on shares of ZNGA…
Institutional Ownership
Destrier Capital Management Llc had the most significant stake with ownership of 6.89 million shares as of q2 2015 for 4.74% of the stock exposure.
Contour Asset Management Llc is another bullish investment professional who is owning 29.38 million shares of Zynga Inc or 4.12% of their stock exposure.
Moreover, Brightfield Capital Management Llc have 3.76% of their stock exposure invested in the company for 1.20 million shares.
The New York-based fund Eminence Capital Lp revealed it had bought a stake worth about 3.11% of the investment professional’s stock portfolio in Zynga Inc.
The Sweden-based fund Zenit Asset Management Ab is also positive about the stock, possessing 76.33 million shares or 3.02% of their stock exposure.Over the last six months, Zynga Inc NASDAQ:ZNGA has seen 0 buys, and 9 insider sales. The net result was for 9 transactions, worth $385,418…
Source:
www.octafinance.com/zynga-inc-nasdaqznga-outperform-rating-reconfirmed-by-analysts-at-wedbush-with-4-25-target/358994/
ZNGA: GIBEAU:…I LOOK AT WHAT ZYNGA’S CAPABLE OF…THAT,VISION,IS,MORE,RELEVANT,NOW,THAN,IT’S,EVER,BEEN…
Gibeau: I love where our company is positioned. Our focus on mass-market social is far from its full potential. When I look at what Zynga’s capable of and how that vision is more relevant now than it’s ever been in the company’s history,...
Zynga keeps chipping away at its turnaround under Frank Gibeau
Dean Takahashi November 3, 2016 12:00 PM
Tags: CSR Racing 2, Dawn of Titans, Frank Gibeau, Gerard Griffin, Zynga
Former Electronic Arts mobile boss Frank Gibeau is now Zynga's chief.
Above: Former Electronic Arts mobile boss Frank Gibeau is now Zynga's chief.
Image Credit: Zynga
Zynga has had a long march over the past five years as it has tried to recapture a position in mobile games that mirrors what it once had in Facebook social games. As Facebook desktop games have declined, the company has launched new games in its CSR, FarmVille, and social casino slots franchises on mobile.
And under new CEO Frank Gibeau, Zynga is making progress, based on an earnings report yesterday. It has remade its management team and launched new versions of its big franchises, such as FarmVille: Tropic Escape. To show confidence in the turnaround, Zynga pledged to buy $200 million in stock back from investors over the next couple of years.
But I got the sense that Zynga won’t really achieve its turnaround until we see how its Dawn of Titans game does. The game has been in development at Zynga’s Natural Motion division in the United Kingdom for years. The title is in soft launch, and it should finally debut more broadly by the end of the year, Gibeau said.
I talked with Gibeau about Dawn of Titans and the company’s latest earnings yesterday. Here’s an edited transcript of our conversation.
Zynga Poker Classic is growing again.
Above: Zynga Poker Classic is growing again.
Image Credit: Zynga
Frank Gibeau: The quarter was a good one. We executed well. We’re gaining some momentum in our turnaround. We beat on the top and the bottom for the third quarter in a row. We’re excited about getting products out and seeing the market reaction to them.
CSR 2 continues to do well for us. We were a little worried there when we released it the same week as Pokemon Go, but it’s performed well in the face of crazy competition. We have a million five-star reviews. It’s the number one racing game in 50 countries. As it settles in and we head into Christmas, we have a lot of updates planned. Tropic Escape is doing well.[color=red][/color] It was released in Q3, late in the quarter, but its weekly run rates are improving. It’s moving from strength to strength.
We’re pleased at how people are responding to our title plan, and we have one last game to go, a little game called Dawn of Titans. That’s coming out late in the quarter. We’re still in soft launch, making some tweaks, but we’re trying to get in position for a Q4 release. It shouldn’t have a big financial impact on the business because it’s late in the quarter, but it’ll be great to finally release that game and get it to the audience.
Ferrari in a garage in CSR2.
Above: Ferrari in a garage in CSR2.
Image Credit: Zynga
One thing that surprised us was how well our existing live services performed year over year. If you look at Words with Friends, Social Slots, and Zynga Poker on mobile, they’re up 33 percent, 26 percent, 16 percent. The redoubling of our efforts in existing live services at scale is paying off. We’re showing some product innovation there, too, by releasing Words with Friends in iMessage during the quarter. That was an organic growth effort on our part and we’re excited to see the potential there in the long term.
We brought in Gerard about five or six weeks ago, after having brought Matt Bernard on board. I feel good about where our management team is. Almost immediately, when Gerard came on board, he said we should be buying back our shares. We have a good long-term outlook in front of us. We announced a $200 million share buyback. I feel good about having these guys on board, because they’ll help this organization continue its emphasis on quality games and a sharp operation so we can generate more profits than we ever have. We’re not done yet, but it does feel good.
GamesBeat: I saw you clearly beat on bookings. What about net income?
Gibeau: Our EBITDA for this quarter was $17.9 million. Consensus was about $16.7 million. Our guidance was $12-16 million on EBITDA. We were slightly under on earnings per share, primarily due to the fact that we took a non-cash writeoff in the quarter relating to an impairment against some acquisitions we’d taken in the past that didn’t perform up to expectations. That dipped us slightly below on our GAAP net loss. That was up to $41.7 million, as opposed the low end of our guidance. But we generated more cash in the quarter, so it was an intangible non-cash writedown. We generated operating cash flow in the quarter of $21 million. From an operational point of view it was a strong performance, but taking into consideration some balance-sheet actions, it depressed the net loss.
GamesBeat: Does that still come out to a non-GAAP beat?
Gibeau: Yes, on a non-GAAP basis.
GamesBeat: I wondered how CSR2 was comparing to the launch of the original game. Is it taking off faster?
Gibeau: It’s off to a much faster start, yes. Sequels always benefit from that existing audience. The original CSR and CSR Classic continue to be in live ops, serving an audience. CSR 2 is a lot more technically advanced, a bunch of new features. It’s a nice set of products to be working against an overall market where you have a lot of advanced phones and some more legacy phones.
GamesBeat: It seems like you’re stable on staffing at around 1,800 people. Is that going to continue?
Gibeau: We’re closer to 1,700. I came on board in March, and as Matt and Gerard and some of these studio leaders come on board—we’re constantly looking at ways to sharpen up our operating model, looking at our deployments and teams to make sure we’re in the most optimal place. We don’t look at total number of heads, necessarily, because heads in India versus San Francisco versus parts of Europe and other higher-cost locations—we’re looking more at operating expenses. If you look at that on a forward basis, we’re guiding to lower operating expenses in Q4 versus Q3, for example.
Dawn of Titans
Above: Dawn of Titans
Image Credit: Zynga
GamesBeat: For the quarter ahead, is there anything changing as far as outlook?
Gibeau: We gave a range, from 185 to 195. Dawn of Titans is coming late in the quarter, so as I said, it’s not a huge financial impact. But getting it out and into the marketing window for the holiday is a positive. Our advertising business is doing pretty good. We saw slight growth quarter over quarter. If you look at the seasonality of an ad business, November and December still have a lot of business to go.
We’re still managing the legacy Facebook and web business. We’re still trying to understand how that’s going to continue, even as it’s obviously in secular decline. It’s a nice contributor to our business, but overall we have to make sure we’re constantly monitoring how that drops.
The larger issue to think about is we’re not prioritizing bookings number one. Our number one priority is shipping high-quality games, followed by generating EBITDA, profitability. Bookings come after that. If you look at our marketing expenditures and some of our other expenditures, we’re trying to drive toward higher quality bookings. By that I mean bookings that are sustainable and profitable.
That hasn’t always been the case at Zynga. There have been times where there have been very high levels of marketing spend – Q4 last year is a good example – but it didn’t lead anywhere. It didn’t generate revenues that sustained. We’re taking a more aggressive look at—when we put a dollar out in the marketplace on an ad, on paid acquisition, what’s the ROI? What’s the audience? We’ve increased a lot of talent and capability there.
[color=green]GamesBeat: Any other views on the mobile gaming market overall?
Gibeau: I’m a bull. You know me. I used to work on console and PC, and I’ll never go back. I love the mobile business. The audiences you can reach, the geographic distribution—you have huge markets in Asia and emerging markets.[/color] When people say the charts are never going to change, I don’t agree. It’s a dynamic time in mobile. There’s a lot of consolidation happening, a lot of new products coming, new ways to engage customers, whether it’s subscription or AR or VR. It’s exciting.
I love where our company is positioned. Our focus on mass-market social is far from its full potential. When I look at what Zynga’s capable of and how that vision is more relevant now than it’s ever been in the company’s history, I’m excited about where we’re at as a company and as a market.
Source:
venturebeat.com/2016/11/03/zynga-keeps-chipping-away-at-its-turnaround-under-frank-gibeau/
ZNGA: NOT GIVING A SPECIFIC 2016,(DAWN,OF,TITANS),DATE,FOR,COMPETITIVE,REASONS(Transcript)
Dave Lee, JPMorgan - Analyst 20
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Great and then as a follow-up, could you tell us when during holiday season we could expect to see Dawn of Titans? Will it be closer to the end of the quarter or maybe closer to the mid?
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO 21
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...In terms of your question about when it is specifically going to drop.
I'm not going to give you a specific date for competitive reasons, we don't want to reveal too much there. It is a very competitively intense category, however we will say that it is going to have a positive impact on the quarter...
Edited Transcript of ZNGA earnings conference call or presentation 2-Nov-16 9:00pm GMT
Thomson Reuters StreetEvents•November 2, 2016
Q3 2016 Zynga Inc Earnings Call
San Francisco Nov 3, 2016 (Thomson StreetEvents) -- Edited Transcript of Zynga Inc earnings conference call or presentation Wednesday, November 2, 2016 at 9:00:00pm GMT
TEXT version of Transcript
================================================================================
Corporate Participants
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* Rebecca Lau
Zynga, Inc. - Manager of IR and Corporate Finance
* Frank Gibeau
Zynga, Inc. - CEO
* Ger Griffin
Zynga, Inc. - CFO
================================================================================
Conference Call Participants
================================================================================
* Tim O'Shea
Jefferies & Co. - Analyst
* Eric Sheridan
UBS - Analyst
* Mike Olson
Piper Jaffray - Analyst
* Heath Terry
Goldman Sachs - Analyst
* Dave Lee
JPMorgan - Analyst
* Chris Merwin
Barclays Capital - Analyst
* John Lanterman
Morgan Stanley - Analyst
* Doug Creutz
Cowen and Company - Analyst
* Jason Mitchel
Bank of America - Analyst
* Mike Hickey
The Benchmark Company - Analyst
================================================================================
Presentation
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Operator [1]
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Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and what thank you for your patience. You joined the Zynga third-quarter 2016 results conference call.
(Operator Instructions)
As a reminder, this conference may be recorded. I would now like to turn call over to your host, Rebecca Lau, with the Investor Relations. Ma'am, you may begin.
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Rebecca Lau, Zynga, Inc. - Manager of IR and Corporate Finance [2]
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Thank you and welcome to Zynga's third-quarter earnings call. As you've seen, we published our press release, earnings letter and earnings slides on our investor relations website. On the call with me today are Frank Gibeau, our Chief Executive Officer and Ger Griffin, our Chief Financial Officer.
Shortly we will open it up for live questions. During the course of today's call we will make forward-looking statements related to our business plan and strategy, as well as expectations for our future performance, including our guidance for Q4 and our plans for our game slate and operations. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted.
Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences are detailed in our press release, earnings letter, investor presentation and under the caption Risk Factors in our Form 10-Q and 10-K as well as elsewhere in our SEC filings. We will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures. As we discussed in our call on October 27, beginning with Q3 earnings we will no longer exclude GAAP revenue deferrals in our calculation adjusted EBITDA.
In addition, we will provide adjusted EBITDA under the previously reported methodology one last time in order is provide transparency with regard to how we did against Q3 guidance. Our press release, earnings letter, investor presentation and, when filed, our 10-Q will include reconciliations of our GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Please be sure to look at these reconciliations as the non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for our GAAP results.
This conference call is being webcasted and will be available for audio replay on our Investor Relations website in a few hours. Now I'll turn the call over to Frank for his opening remarks.
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO [3]
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Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for Zynga's Q3 earnings call. Earlier today we released our quarterly earnings letter which details our progress and performance over the last quarter. Our teams executed well in Q3 and we are gaining momentum in our turnaround.
We beat our guidance on bookings and adjusted EBITDA for the third consecutive quarter and our mobile audience grew by 7%. We saw improved execution in three key areas. First, delivering new, high-quality mobile games, second, growing our existing live mobile franchises and third, unlocking more operating leverage.
In terms of our new products, we are proud of the NaturalMotion studio for delivering a high-quality game to Racing fans with CSR2. The game has had a strong start achieving the number eight top grossing game in the iOS App Store during it's launch period. CSR2 has received more than 1 million five-star reviews to date it and is currently the number one grossing racing game in over 50 countries. Our focus now is to drive growth in live operations through new content, features, and live events to increase long-term retention and improved repeat payer monetization.
As we entered Q4, we are excited to launch Dawn of Titans this holiday season. This title will complete our committed 10 game slate for 2016. NaturalMotion is known for pushing the creative and technical boundaries of what's possible on mobile devices. We continue to iterate the game as we conclude soft launch testing prior to the worldwide launch.
Turning to our live operations, we are pleased to see the focus in our existing live mobile franchises pay off. Words with Friends grew mobile bookings 33% year-over-year. Social Slots grew 26% year-over-year and Zynga Poker was up 16%.
A key factor in delivering this performance has been our commitment to driving organic growth through social innovation in these live franchises. Last month we became one of the first gaming companies to launch on Apple's iMessage App Store with Words with Friends. While it is early days, we created a dynamic new channel for Zynga to acquire and engage players.
As a team we are focused on sharpening our operating model and driving profitability. We've upgraded our user acquisition teams and raised the bar on our paid acquisition ROI as we shifted towards a higher quality booking strategy. This has already started to pay dividends with an improved margin performance in Q3 despite an increase in marketing spend against our new releases.
Finally[color=green] I'm excited to welcome Ger Griffin and as our Chief Financial Officer of Zynga. Ger is going to drive and increased focus on profitability and unlock more operating leverage across the Company. He will also be spending time with our shareholder and analyst community.
With that I would like to turn call over to Ger.
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Ger Griffin, Zynga, Inc. - CFO [4]
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Thanks, Frank. Firstly, I want to take a moment to express my enthusiasm for Zynga. Zynga has an incredible opportunity in front of it.
Our social gaming vision plays very well in and increasingly mobile world. We have talented developers and a strong portfolio of brands. We have a robust balance sheet and we have the Management Team in place to unlock this potential.
We are also a company in turnaround and to date we are showing progress in the number of key areas: delivering new high quality mobile games, growing our existing live services and unlocking operating leverage and improving the Company's profitability. Before I get into the results,[/color] I want to remind you that we hosted a call last week to outline changes to external non-GAAP reporting in response to the SEC staff's updated interpretation on non-GAAP performance measures.
I encourage you to review these materials if you have not done so already. Now to our results. Our Q3 GAAP revenues were above our expected range at $182.4 million.
Our GAAP net loss was $41.7 million, below the low-end of our guidance. The higher than expected net loss was due to the net write-off of acquisition-related intangible assets. The change in deferred revenue was $14.3 million, above the expected level of $10 million.
Our bookings were at the high end of our guidance range at $196.7 million, up 12% year-on-year, and 13% sequentially. Our adjusted EBITDA under the new methodology, which includes the change in deferred revenue was $3.6 million. Our adjusted EBITDA as previously defined, which excludes the change in deferred revenue, was $17.9 million, above the high-end of our guidance, up 44% year-on-year and 54% sequentially.
As noted earlier, our bookings and adjusted EBITDA beat was driven by stronger than expected performance from CSR2 and our advertising bookings. Finally, we generated operating cash flow of $21 million in Q3 and ended the quarter with a $871 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, up $2.4 million from the prior quarter. Turning to our guidance.
Our outlook for Q4 is as follows, GAAP revenue in the range of $180 million to $190 million. GAAP net-loss in the range of $27 million to $25 million, GAAP earnings per share loss of $0.3 on 889 million shares. The net increase in deferred revenue, $5 million. Bookings in the range of $185 million to $195 million, adjusted EBITDA, new methodology, between $12 million and $14 million.
There are several key puts and takes to think about when looking at our Q4 guidance relative to our Q3 performance. Our bookings will benefit sequentially from a full quarter of FarmVille Tropic Escape and we expect Dawn of Titans be a positive contributor to Q4 but to minimal impact due to its holiday release. We also believe our advertising bookings will grow sequentially but expect to be slightly down year-on-year.
This sequential growth is driven by seasonal strength in our mobile advertising, in particular Words with Friends. On the year-over-year basis, growth in mobile advertising will be more than offset by declines in our web advertising. In the near-term, we expect bookings from CSR2 to be lower than launch highs as the team strengthens the content pipeline and player engagement.
We also expect continued bookings and audience declines in our web and older games. We expect our non-GAAP operating expenses to be down from the $126.5 million we reported in Q3 driven by lower marketing spend and the continued focus on operational efficiency.
As previously stated, our long-term objective is to deliver operating margins that are more in line with our peers. As we look for opportunities to create shareholder value we continue to assess our capital allocation strategy. As an initial step we are today announcing a two-year $200 million share repurchase program.
The program will give us the flexibility to execute share repurchases in a measured fashion, taking into consideration equity dilution, market conditions, share price and other factors. In closing, we are very pleased with a very strong Q3 performance and look for it to maintaining this momentum into Q4. With that, I'd like to turn back to it back to the operator to get started with questions.
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Questions and Answers
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Operator [1]
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(Operator Instructions)
[color=green]Brian Fitzgerald, Jefferies.
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Tim O'Shea, Jefferies & Co. - Analyst [2]
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Yes. Hi, it is Tim O'Shea on for Brian. Thank you for taking my question. Advertising continues to look like a bright spot for you and by our math, you are earning around $2.68 per daily active user in ad revenue and that compares to around $7.46 in online game revenue per daily user,[/color] and that gap has been narrowing over time.
My question is, how do you think about that ad business over time and is there a point where advertising could approach or even overtake online game revenue in the future? Thanks.
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO [3]
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Thanks for your question, Tim. We are very comfortable with the current 75% in-app purchase, 25% advertising mix. We think that, that's the right mix for our business overall. We have a lot of brands that are in live ops right now that we think can benefit from more premium services and more premium content.
We like the 75/25 split in advertising but over time if IEP goes the way we think it will, it is possible that the percentage of the business against advertising will decline as we see more growth there. I think when you look at advertising overall, we are expected to grow but at maybe a slower rate year-over-year as we manage through the web declines in audience.
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Tim O'Shea, Jefferies & Co. - Analyst [4]
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Great, thank you.
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Operator [5]
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Eric Sheridan, UBS.
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Eric Sheridan, UBS - Analyst [6]
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Thanks for taking the questions. Focusing on the mobile part of the business, as we move through this year the percentage of the business that's coming from mobile continues to surprise to the upside, good growth on the mobile side.
How should we think about where mobile, on both the engagement side and the revenue side, can go as we move out of 2016 and into 2017 and what that means for the economics, broadly, or the platform, as you move out of this year and into next year? Thanks, guys.
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO [7]
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I cannot really give you too much color on the forward look other than what we've said on guidance. But in general if you look at our performance over the last couple quarters, yes, the mobile performance has been strong in terms of audience, in terms of engagement. As we get more predictable in our release cadence, that's also proven to be very beneficial to how our mobile business comes together.
MUU and MUP are both headed in the right direction. Player conversions heading in the right direction. We like how CSR has started and how it reached its audience. We'd still honestly like to see better performance and long-term engagement across our portfolio and we are really looking at how we are building our studio to get into position to be able to deliver better performance over a long-term engagement standpoint, elder game features.
We really like the early results on player-versus-player and how we see the cooperation and competition components of games come together. So overall we think that we have room to grow in mobile. The challenge is we still working through some legacy mobile games like Looney Tunes products, like Empires & Allies, as we transition to more of the new wave of products that we're looking at.
There's some puts and takes in terms of how you think about it moving forward. So there could be a little bit of fluctuation as you think about the overall business, but in general the changes we are making to our studios to get -- to improve quality, to drive long-term engagement, to increase predictability, should all be very beneficial.
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Eric Sheridan, UBS - Analyst [8]
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Thank you.
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Operator [9]
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Mike Olson, Piper Jaffray.
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Mike Olson, Piper Jaffray - Analyst [10]
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Good afternoon. Wondering for Dawn of Titans, can you talk about your plans for marketing the title and getting players engaged when the game is launched? Is your strategy there going to be any different from what you've done with prior titles? Thanks.
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO 11
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Thanks, Mike. The Dawn of Titans launch is shaping to be a pretty interesting one. We have a game that is really pushing the envelope technically and creatively on the device. We think it is going have a lot of talk factor, in terms of show-off when you look at the game on a phone or on a tablet. It just is -- there's nothing else out there that looks like it.
And so I think that, that will drive a lot of organic interest in the game. In addition to that, we believe that it's got a lot of anticipation with our channel partners and others so we are hopeful that we are going to get good placement with the game at holiday. We did try some new things on CSR2 in terms of trying out some of the new user acquisition teams that we put in place so we will balance that initial launch, organic positioning with some really sharp paid acquisition behind it.
So we think that we have a really good window. We like the fact that there's going to be a lot of new devices opened up on Christmas and that we're going to have a game that is going to show off the capabilities of those devices in amazing new ways. So we are very excited about the reception. In the weeks we have left before launch, we are continuing to polish and optimize the game against the user feedback that we've been getting.
We've opened up a few new soft launch markets to increase our coverage and get a sense of how some of the changes to user interface, long-term engagement, PDP is going and we are very encouraged by it.
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Mike Olson, Piper Jaffray - Analyst [12]
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Great, thank you.
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Operator [13]
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Heath Terry, Goldman Sachs.
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Heath Terry, Goldman Sachs - Analyst [14]
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Great, thanks. Understand there is a difference in the target audience, but any early learnings from CSR2's last engagement after the launch window that going to inform your strategy -- launch strategy for Dawn of Titans? And then with the major update that you had to Dawn of Titans in the beta back in July, curious how that impacted monetization?
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO [15]
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Sure, quick question on the CSR Dawn of Titans part. I think there -- we learn from every new launch and Dawn of Titans and CSR, while they are not exactly the same genre, they are mid-core games and they come from the same developers. So we are constantly refining our models and our expectations for how Dawn of Titans release versus what we learned on CSR2. Having said that, Action Strategy games typically have a different curve shape in terms of how they come out relative to Racing games.
So it is too early to really be definitive about it, but we expect that they'll -- Dawn of Titans will probably have a different shape to the curve in terms of how the comes out, relative to CSR2. But as we look at conversion and how people move through [V2Es], we are constantly using that learning to optimize Dawn of Titans.
With regards to the July update on Dawn of Titans, we did see positive impacts on monetization as well as in engagement, but we also have made changes since then as well that continues to refine our view and our KPIs on some of those key metrics. And it is a very dense game, it's got a lot of content, it's got a lot of features, it is technically advanced so we are consul in learning from the game and we still have on or two more updates to go before release.
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Heath Terry, Goldman Sachs - Analyst [16]
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Great. Thanks, guys.
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Operator [17]
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Douglas Anmuth, JPMorgan.
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Dave Lee, JPMorgan - Analyst [18]
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Hi, this is Dave Lee on for Doug Anmuth. Thank you for taking me question. The first one on ARPU and payer conversion.
In 3Q I saw a nice jump there and I assume CSR2 was a big driver for that but could you give us some color on recent trends, in those key metrics and your expectation going forward as you invest in CSR2 and launch Dawn of Titans? And I have a follow-up.
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO [19]
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Sure, you are right, the jump in player conversion was driven by the CSR2 launch. It's a game that does a very good job on creating value for players that they want to engage with so we are pleased with that. We have seen that the player conversion has been steady with that game.
What we are concentrating on right now is giving players more content, more events, more ways to compete on a PDP level for the game so we are just getting started with CSR2. We'd like to be in this business for years and we have a long-term orientation on how we are going to conduct live ops there.
In terms of player conversion on Dawn of Titans, we see a range of percentages there depending on the soft launch territory we are in and on which build that we are on. So there's not a lot of color I can add to that particular part, other than it's something that we are constantly looking at.
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Dave Lee, JPMorgan - Analyst [20]
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Great and then as a follow-up, could you tell us when during holiday season we could expect to see Dawn of Titans? Will it be closer to the end of the quarter or maybe closer to the mid?
And then on the title itself, I like the quality of the CSR2 but also recognize that quality converts to bigger app size and the I understand that game is probably [triple the size of] CSR2 is different but can you give us some color on your expectation for audience overlap between the two titles? And if there are any potential for cannibalization, given that there's limited storage on mobile devices?
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO [21]
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We don't foresee a great deal of cannibalization between the two titles. For high-end games on devices that are console-level graphics on a phone, we think that there's networking cross promotion opportunities but we don't see them as cannibalistic. In terms of your question about when it is specifically going to drop.
I'm not going to give you a specific date for competitive reasons, we don't want to reveal too much there. It is a very competitively intense category, however we will say that it is going to have a positive impact on the quarter but you believe it is a minimal contribution. We really want to think about Dawn of Titans on a more long-term basis beyond just the Q4 timeframe., And I'm afraid I did not quite remember the middle question.
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Dave Lee, JPMorgan - Analyst [22]
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I think you covered everything I asked.
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO [23]
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Okay, great.
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Operator [24]
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Chris Merwin, Barclays.
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Chris Merwin, Barclays Capital - Analyst [25]
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Thank you. So, Frank, I think in your prepared remarks you talked about shifting to a higher quality booking strategy so was wondering if you could talk little bit more about what that entails? Are you trying to target higher-quality users with better long-term engagement and if that's the case how do you go about doing that?
And then just a second question for Ger now that you've joined, what are some of the key areas that stick out to you as opportunities for cost reductions and how else do you think about driving operating leverage in the business? Thanks.
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO [26]
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Chris, what I mean by higher-quality bookings are bookings that are more sustainable and profitable than what Zynga has traditionally gone after. There unfortunately was a lack of, I believe, discipline and, frankly, science and math behind how we were opening new channels, how we were looking at new customers. We also raised the level of expectation on ROIs.
They were little lower than I was comfortable with. And so as we pursue this early stages of the transition, we are really try to generate a lot more profitability inside the business and part of that means that we have to raise the level of our game, in terms of not only paid acquisition but also put more emphasis on organic.
But some of the tactical things that we've done on the UA front, is we brought in a new team, we have a new head of UA, we have a new CMO. We've change the standards at which we will spend and invest in acquiring customers. We've opened up some new channels. We closed out some less productive ones.
The team has also started to build some new algorithms and new ways to look at it. So overall, we are just increasing the effectiveness of the capability. Increasing the effectiveness of the leadership and I think that reflects a little bit in that, in the quarter we increased marketing spend because we have new-launch heavy quarter but we also saw an improvement of margin on the bottom.
So we actually saw the yield. Now, it's very early days but we'd like to continue to see that progress on KPIs across the board. We are very bullish on being able to get more with less in our marketing function going forward because of these increases in leadership and capability. Ger?
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Ger Griffin, Zynga, Inc. - CFO 27
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From my perspective, as I said in the prepared remarks, I'm really excited with what I see in front of me. There's some amazing people here, some really talented people, just building on what Frank said in terms of UA. I think for me, driving a higher level of marketing effectiveness and having the data and analytics to prove that out is vitally important and I've been really impressed with the UA teams here at Zynga.
Going more broadly to your question of how are we are going to look to unlock that operating leverage and get a little bit more fine tuned in terms of the fiscal side. My challenge has been to my team and to the rest of the Management team is to -- nothing is sacred. We need to take a hard look at everything we do, do more with less sounds obvious but it is definitely a matter we have internally within the Company.
Take a look at each discretionary spend and make sure that if it is necessary is it at the right level and if there's anything that's either redundant or duplicative, and myself and the Chief Operating Officer, Matt Bromberg, have been going through every line. If it is not necessary, kill it.
And -- I guess my mom used to say to me, it is common a lot of what we're doing but we are really putting a fine focus on making sure that for every dollar we make on the top that we are not leaking any money to the bottom. And it's going to take time. We are in a turnaround. But that's basically my insight after six weeks.
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Chris Merwin, Barclays Capital - Analyst [28]
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All right, thank you.
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Operator [29]
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Brian Nowak, Morgan Stanley.
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John Lanterman, Morgan Stanley - Analyst [30]
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Hi, this is John Lanterman on for Brian. Quick question that piggybacks on Chris' question on the cost reductions. You guys talked earlier about getting your margins closer to competitors. Just on how you get there, is this a combination of headcount reductions or if you look at the OpEx line items you guys talked about marketing increasing the ROI on is there additional efficiencies you can get in R&D and Product and Development or it is a lot of this also coming through incremental revenues and high incremental margins? Thanks.
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO [31]
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Yes, I will start and Ger can add color. My perspective is that we can get some distance towards our peers' margins through just a sharper operating model of an improved cost structure and continuing to be focused on execution. Hitting dates. There's nothing that drives costs higher than missing dates on products. So from our perspective that focus would get us some ways towards our goal.
It will also require us to continue to put out some breakout hits like CSR2. And that is something that our Management Team has some experience with and we are excited in the studios to push the envelope on what's possible in our games. So a combination of those two things, we believe will get us into that conversation and stay but as you look at G&A, as you look at R&D, as you look at our marketing and sales, I would have to say we have made most of our early progress in the marketing and sales line item.
But as you look at R&D and as you look at G&A, we believe that there are opportunities through redeployment, remixing, not doing things that we don't need to do anymore to really start to get us into a position where we have a much more efficient organization, much more sharp operating model so that when we do generate the top line revenue and we're starting to grow our audiences it is not watered down as it moves through the P&L. And so from our perspective, I'm seven months in and Ger is six week in, we think we have made good progress so far but we've got a lot more to do.
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Ger Griffin, Zynga, Inc. - CFO 32
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Yes, just reinforcing what Frank said. Both of us have been through this before in previous lives, me more recently, seven weeks ago. I think that the simple point is, you really need to take a look at everything you do on a day-to-day basis and we will be looking at every line item in the P&L.
And not just the P&L, but just operationally how we work, getting stronger in terms of cadence, in terms of beats and looking at our revenue, our player data and essentially looking to drive efficiency, both from a process perspective and also from and investment and spend perspective. The one thing I would say is what I've seen is there's nothing unusual here.
It truly is going to be a case of focusing our rigor and building a stronger framework around how we operate and making sure that we do drive that. Once we produce these great games and we drive that player engagement of monetization that we are bringing it through to the bottom line.
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John Lanterman, Morgan Stanley - Analyst [33]
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Thanks and then if I have a follow-up just on early slate for 2017. I know it is early but you guys had a goal for 10 games this year with -- early on, do think that's about the right number or are you going to narrow that down and try to go for bigger games with fewer titles? Thanks.
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO [34]
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This is Frank. I will reserve our remarks for what 2017 is going to look like for Q4 earnings call. So we will get more detailed with you guys at that time, in terms of how many games and which ones. But I can tell you that our bias is towards quality over quantity. We look -- when I came into the role and we looked at the 10 games this year, we felt like that was the right number for this year.
But as we go into the next year and we start to see the rewards that we are getting from investment in games that have been around for 6, 8, 10 years, as you look at Words with Friends and Poker, for example, that's recurring, evergreen business is where we want to be. And so making sure that you have maximum quality and you are delivering that long-term engagement and the product fits with our vision of mass-market-social, those are going to be our criteria that we go through as we look at which titles will we commit to on a slate-basis. But we will give you guys a lot more color and detail hopefully on our Q4 call.
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Ger Griffin, Zynga, Inc. - CFO 35
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I'd just like to briefly add to that. Again going back to six weeks in, I think what excites me about the leverage that we have in the Company is that if we fundamentally focus on the games we have in market right now with our players and we focus on unlocking the operating leverage we referred to already, that story alone is really compelling to me. And then you add to that new launches, I think it is going to be an exciting year.
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John Lanterman, Morgan Stanley - Analyst [36]
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Great, thank you.
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Operator [37]
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Doug Creutz, Cowen.
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Doug Creutz, Cowen and Company - Analyst 38
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Yes, thanks. Frank, on of the things I've noticed about you guys for long time is that your revenue tends to skew pretty heavily to the US, close to 70%. A lot of your larger peers are able to get it closer to 50/50 because obviously the gaming market as global.
We think about sources of operating leverage is that something you guys are focused on in trying to broaden your revenue base of outside of the US more? And to the extent that it is, what do you think the challenges are?
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO 39
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Thank you, Doug. I absolutely looked at geographic dispersion when I came in and we are way too concentrated North America. As you know, most of the mobile business is in Asia. There's a sizable business in Europe and I'm used to businesses that are a lot more balanced 50/50 domestic and international and we are way over-weighted to North America.
Some of that has to do with our Social Casino business is more North American oriented, Poker is nice blend of international. Words with Friends is an English Language game so there's some reasons within the brands why you see that concentration. But as you start to release more products like Tropic Escape, Dawn of Titans, CSR2, that have broad appeal globally that's definitely our orientation as we look at our future slate.
I'm really not interested in a regional-only appeal game, I'm really looking for globally-appealing game. And in addition to that we did not have a business of any significance in Asia and what was encouraging about the release of CSR2 is we reached China for the first time. We actually had an audience there that was larger than expected and the content appealed to the audience. And so we're very encouraged by that result and we think that we can do more in Asia. Certainly we are growing from a very low base so, from my perspective, that's a priority for us for sure.
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Doug Creutz, Cowen and Company - Analyst [40]
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Great, thanks.
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Operator [41]
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Justin Post, Bank of America.
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Jason Mitchel, Bank of America - Analyst [42]
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This is Jason Mitchell here for Justin. I guess there are some other big titles coming out in December for mobile, like Mario Run, how are you guys thinking about competition on mobile in terms of your titles and your Dawn of Titans release? And is there any title you've had historically that you might liken to your expectations for Dawn the Titans?
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO [43]
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THERE'S NOTHING REALLY LIKE DAWN OF TITANS that Zynga has produced before so it is been rough finding a like-title comparison internally. That's not necessarily a negative, it's just we don't have anything to compare about. And it is position in the market is unique when you start to stack it against some of the titles from Supercell or Machine Zone and others, it really looks different, plays different, feels different. It is innovative so we like our chances for standing out this holiday in that category.
In terms of competition, we have some categories that are -- have very high competitive intensity. If you look at Social Casino, we compete directly with companies like Caesar's and others in slots as well as in poker. And competition, I believe, brings the best out in our teams and it is a point of emphasis for us to bring that more into the conversation internally. But at the same time we launched CSR2 essentially in the same window as Pokemon GO and that brought a lot of new customers into mobile gaming, which we loved.
And we also did not see a major impact on our business. So as you start to see some of these titles, like Mario or Pokemon, hit the market we actually are inspired by the innovation there. I think the market benefits from a lot of these new users coming into mobile gaming and that overall -- that helps us indirectly. So I like competition because I think it is pro ball. You got to compete.
And so for my perspective, we are not worried about it. We just make sure that we are in a good position against it.
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Jason Mitchel, Bank of America - Analyst [44]
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Great, thanks.
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Operator [45]
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Mike Hickey, Benchmark Company.
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Mike Hickey, The Benchmark Company - Analyst [46]
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Frank, great quarter, congratulations. I'm late to the call so I apologize. I don't think these have been asked. But your audience metrics for the quarter, looking at MAU and DAU, looks like sequentially they've rebounded a bit.
Just curious, when we think about Q4 and 2017, maybe that's too much of a stretch, but if we expect -- if you expect that trend to continue? And then I'm also curious, there's a lot of ways to cut up a business. There's a lot of different metrics. Wondering what you think or the feel would the key metrics we should pay attention to when we try to model your business for it? And I have a quick follow-up.
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO 47
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Thanks, Mike. In terms of audience, yes, we definitely saw a rebound in Q3. Mobile overall, on our DAU, MAU our MUU and MUPs were all up this quarter which was positive. In general, on the last call I did say that our mobile audience will fluctuate as we move through some legacy businesses in terms of some traditionally high DAU, low monetization games and we start to move into a greater focus in our core mobile franchises.
A long-term imperative for us internally and what we challenge our creative and publishing teams is, simply put, we need more people playing Zynga games tomorrow than they are today. And so audience growth is absolutely vital to us and we want to get into the right configuration from a portfolio standpoint so that we're looking at audience growth in Words with Friends or Poker or the NaturalMotion titles. So again I just ask you as we turn the Company around, you will still some little bit of fluctuations on a quarter-over-quarter basis but we are absolutely 100% focused on growing audience over the long-term.
In terms of the audience metrics or Company business metrics that we look at, Zynga is a very data-rich company. It's got excellent capabilities in data science and in product management so we look at a lot of stuff. Some of it we communicate externally, some of it we reserve internally but DAU, MAU, MUU, MUP, player conversion, looking at the ARPU and advertising rates, we report a lot of data more so than a lot of other companies in this peer group. So there's an enough data there in terms of what we are reporting that I think gives you a good sense of what we are looking at internally.
There's a few proprietary things that we look at that we reserve, mainly really focused in on engagement metrics and conversion and churn dynamics.
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Mike Hickey, The Benchmark Company - Analyst 48
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Okay, thanks. The last one for me. I realize expense control has been a big mantra for you and obviously your orbit of growth has been welcomed. But I'm wondering if you could give us some visibility on dev expense, especially when you -- maybe over your 2017 slate. I guess in general the average development expense you see moving forward because it feels like at least that piece of the puzzle is on the rise.[color=red][/color]
And I'm also, beyond just a general game, I'm curious about mid-core because it looks like that category in particular is one of your competitors is positioned to put more monies in to the initial development of those games to have as much playable content, call it week one, to drive long-term retention. And I'm wondering if you feel the same and if the framework on mid-core is in fact -- to compete you basically have to put more monies in? Anything there would be hopeful. Thanks, Frank.
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Frank Gibeau, Zynga, Inc. - CEO [49]
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Sure. Look, I think overall as we benchmark our Company on development expenses or G&A or Marketing and Sales, we are really trying to get the Company fit for purpose against that long-term growth that we are trying to achieve. So we look at dev expenses today versus what they are going to be tomorrow, what's critical for us is to make sure that we get into a place where we have a world-class studio, where we have the talent that can deliver hit products that deliver around our social vision for the mass-market.
And then what's important to that is putting into place processes that are relatively new to the organization like a fairly tight green-light process, a lot more check ins on development that free the game teams up for innovation but remove a lot of the distractions and noise, a concentration of talent on big ideas as opposed trying to do too many games. There's a whole laundry list of things on an efficiency and an operating model basis that were going to bring to bear on the development expenses so that over time we get more yield from those investments than we are currently experiencing.
On your question with regards to mid-core, in my career I have a fair bit of experience in those type of games and I'm really excited about the opportunity at Zynga in working with NaturalMotion. I think that they are the type of brand and studio that can compete with the best in the world. And I think if you look at the performance on CSR2, I think that's indicative on a quality level of what's possible. Could be due a better job on long-term engagement with NaturalMotion? Yes.
And to your point, having that in a better position at launch is exactly one of the things that we are thinking about. But the NaturalMotion brand, studio, talent, the intellectual property that they build, I think that can build a strong position for us in mid-core that will be broadly appealing, highly social, engaging from a long-term standpoint and ultimately high-quality and I'm excited to be working with those guys.
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Mike Hickey, The Benchmark Company - Analyst [50]
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All right. Thanks, guys, good luck.
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Rebecca Lau, Zynga, Inc. - Manager of IR and Corporate Finance [51]
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All right. Great. I think that was our last question so we just wanted to thank everyone for joining today and we look forward to speaking with you on our next earnings call.
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Operator [52]
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Thank you, ma'am. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude your call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Have a wonderful day.
Source:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/edited-transcript-znga-earnings-conference-024239609.html
ZNGA: ZYNGA REPORTED A PROFIT ON $197 MILLION BOOKINGS ,also,$200,MILLION,IN,SHARES,BUY,BACK,ACTIVATED
CSR2 mobile racing game helps Zynga hit $197 million in bookings for third quarter
Dean Takahashi November 2, 2016 1:05 PM
Tags: Frank Gibeau, Zynga
Above: NaturalMotion is revving up the graphics for CSR2.
Image Credit: Zynga
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On the strength of new titles like CSR2 and FarmVille: Tropic Escape, Zynga reported third fiscal quarter earnings that beat Wall Streets estimates for the three months ended September 30.
Based on new financial reporting rules, it might look like Zynga actually missed its targets. Analysts expected Zynga to report earnings per share of 1 cent a share on bookings of $187 million. On a GAAP basis, Zynga reported a loss of 5 cents a share and bookings of $182 million.
But the analyst estimates are based on non-GAAP numbers, which remove one-time anomalies from the results. On that basis, Zynga reported a slight profit on bookings of $197 million.
“The quarter was a good one,” said Frank Gibeau, CEO of Zynga, in an interview with GamesBeat. “We executed well. And we gained some momentum in our turnaround.”
In early after-hours trading, Zynga’s stock price fell 3.2 percent to $2.65 a share. Zynga’s value is about $2.3 billion, far below its $9 billion value in 2011 after its initial public offering.
During the quarter, Zynga launched CSR2, the sequel to its successful racing game, during the quarter. The game is No. 1 in top-grossing in 50 countries.
“We were a little worried when we released it in the same week as Pokemon Go, but it is performing extremely well in the face of crazy competition,” Gibeau said.
Zynga also launched FarmVille: Tropic Escape in the quarter and the quarterly results included a full quarter of Wizard of Oz: Magic Match, a social casino game. All of those helped boost earnings before income taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA, a measure of profitability) during the quarter.
Gibeau said the company is working hard on Dawn of Titans, a new real-time strategy game coming from the company’s U.K. studio. That game is in soft launch and will likely launch before the end of the year. Since that game is launching late in the quarter, it is not expected to have a big impact on fourth quarter bookings, which Zynga expects to be about $185 million to $195 million.
Meanwhile, during the third quarter, Zynga’s key mobile games – Words With Friends, Zynga Poker and Slots – continued to drive growth with bookings up 26 percent from a year ago.
“We are executing in delivering high-quality games, growing our existing franchises, and reducing operating expenses,” Gibeau said.
Zynga also announced today it will buy back shares in a $200 million program that will be executed over two years.
During the quarter, Zynga hired its new chief financial officer, Gerard Griffin, from a finance job at Electronic Arts. Gibeau said he was pleased with the work that the newly recruited management team has done, but he added, “Our work isn’t done.”
For live mobile, Words With Friends saw good growth in the quarter with bookings up 33 percent from a year ago and 7 percent sequentially. Zynga introduced the game on iMessage as a new experiment. Social slots grew mobile bookings 26 percent from a year ago.
Source:
venturebeat.com/2016/11/02/csr2-helps-zynga-hit-197-million-in-bookings-for-third-quarter/
ZNGA: ZYNGA, Coca-Cola and Nissan, Ubisoft, Google, Honda,Allstate,Procter&Gamble,L'oreal...,
PR NEWSWIRE
Vungle Introduces Dynamic Templates to DRIVE PERFORMANCE FOR ADVERTISERS, BOLSTER REVENUE STREAMS FOR MOBILE PUBLISHERS
November 2, 2016
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Vungle, the leading performance marketing platform for in-app video ads, today announced Dynamic Templates, a new solution that gives advertisers and publishers access to a variety of unique ad templates designed to improve the consumer ad experience and drive higher conversion.
Dynamic Templates
Video - https://sqps.onstreamsecure.com/origin/multivu_archive/PRNA/ENR/VungleDynamicTemplates(2).mp4
"Mobile has fundamentally changed the world of performance advertising. Low quality, poorly designed video ads simply no longer have a place in apps today," said Zain Jaffer, CEO of Vungle. "With the introduction of Dynamic Templates, we've now made it possible to develop rich creatives that can be scaled and optimized to run across a range of platforms and devices; publishers will have even more ways to generate revenue without sacrificing their user experience. It is a critical part of our broader mission to help companies drive ROI through lifetime-value (LTV) optimization."
Dynamic Templates have undergone extensive testing and are already producing significant results for Vungle customers. For example, the new Carousel template, one of the four unique designs already released, is seeing:
• Up to 20 percent conversion uplift over existing full-screen video ad formats;
• Up to 800 percent conversion uplift in initial tests with a 200% conversion uplift average over customer creatives.
"Vungle's new Dynamic Templates are more than just a product enhancement; they solidify Vungle as one of the most innovative video ad tech companies," said Sumee Oh, Director of Marketing at Jam City (formerly SGN).
Dynamic Templates drive performance and enhance the ad experience by giving advertisers a range of new templates in which their creative can be used. Each new template is responsive, so ads always provide a premium ad experience for consumers—no matter their OS, device or screen orientation. They are also modular, so a single creative can be scaled and optimized in real-time across multiple templates, thereby streamlining campaign efficiency and maximizing conversion rates.
For publishers, Dynamic Templates bolster revenue and protect the customer experience by increasing the ad variety users see. Moreover, enhanced optimization and higher conversion rates for advertisers mean publishers can earn more ad revenue for their available inventory. Once a publisher enables Dynamic Templates, they will be able to display any new template Vungle releases without needing to update to the latest version of Vungle's SDK. This saves valuable engineering resources and app review cycles, while also granting immediate access to innovative, high-performing templates that can further increase ad revenue.
Vungle's full-screen ad units have set the industry standard for in-app video ads. With the availability of Dynamic Templates—interstitial, carousel, overlays and gradients—Vungle creates new partnership opportunities globally. Advertisers can broaden reach with innovative ad templates and customizations, which can further increase user conversions. Vungle will be releasing new templates on an ongoing basis. Dynamic Templates also provide new revenue streams for publishers and have already opened up inventory opportunities for Vungle in many verticals, including retail, social, entertainment, travel and hospitality.
Added Jaffer, "At Vungle, we're on a mission to develop solutions that empower performance advertisers and publishers to deliver a great ad experience while also driving measurable ROI. Dynamic Templates goes a long way toward helping our customers achieve exactly that."
Dynamic Templates is available now for iOS and Android through Vungle's latest SDKs. Both SDKs can be downloaded at vungle.com/sdk. The new SDKs are fully compatible with iOS 10 and Android N. Dynamic Templates is also coming soon to the Windows platform. To learn more, click here or watch the video below.
ABOUT VUNGLE
Vungle is the leading performance marketing platform for in-app video ads. Advertisers depend on Vungle's creative and LTV optimization technologies to reach and acquire high-value users worldwide. Top publishers rely on Vungle to generate revenue with engaging video ads that enhance the user experience.
Trusted by 25,000+ mobile apps worldwide with key developer partners such as Supercell, King, Zynga, EA, Ubisoft, Smule and MZ, Google, Honda, Allstate, Procter and Gamble, L'oreal, Coca-Cola and Nissan. Vungle serves 2 billion video views per month on 560+ million unique devices, and is consistently ranked #1 for cross-platform user retention by industry mobile performance indexes. Vungle is backed by Google Ventures, Thomvest Ventures and Crosslink Capital. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in London, Berlin, Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul.
Learn more at www.vungle.com or follow @Vungle.
Media Contact
Katy Green
SHIFT Communications for Vungle
(415) 591-8437
kgreen@shiftcomm.com
Photo - photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20161101/8521606929
Soure:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/vungle-introduces-dynamic-templates-drive-130000500.html
ZNGA: LAUNCHES WORDS WITH GIPHY FEATURE IN WORDS WITH FRIENDS,GIPHY USERS SEND 1 BILLION GIFS EACH DAY
Application program interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. An API specifies how software components should interact and APIs are used when programming graphical user interface (GUI) components.
GAMING | MOBILE
ZYNGA LAUNCHES WORDS WITH GIPHY FEATURE IN WORDS WITH FRIENDS
•
By Brandy Shaul on Oct. 28, 2016 - 4:00
Mobile and social game company Zynga announced the release of Words With Giphy, a new feature within its Words With Friends multiplayer word game that integrates Giphy’s full search API to allow users to search Giphy’s entire database of GIFs after playing or checking words.
With this feature, after users play tiles or check words in the game’s dictionary, they can shake their devices to see GIFs that match their words.
Users can share GIFs with their opponents in the app, and they can also post GIFs to social media. Users can also send GIFs to friends via text message. Finally, iOS 10 users have the ability to send GIFs when they’re playing games in iMessage.
In a statement, Danny Chang, technical partnerships manager at Giphy, commented:
Words With Giphy is an incredibly creative example of an app using our API to augment their existing user experience. Words With Friends cleverly gives users a tactile way to translate words into an animated vernacular that effortlessly extends across their global audience. Their use of the accelerometer is also unique among all of our API partners for its deep search functionality. It’s really exciting for us to partner with Zynga in using our technology in such an original way, bringing Giphy to millions of Words With Friends players around the world.
The new version of Words With Friends is available to download for free on the iTunes App Store.
Source:
www.adweek.com/socialtimes/zynga-launches-words-with-giphy-feature-in-words-with-friends/646720
FORBES
OCT 26, 2016 @ 10:44 AM 4,204
GIPHY PASSES 100 MILLION DAILY USERS WHO SEND 1 BILLION GIFS EACH DAY, REVEALS GV AS INVESTOR
•
•
Alex Konrad ,
Forbes Staff
Staff writer for venture capital, startups and enterprise tech.
Cleveland’s Andrew Miller slamming his fist against his glove after getting out of a jam in Game 1 of the World Series against the Cubs. Halloween greetings from David S. Pumpkins, a recent Tom Hanks character on Saturday Night Live, that don’t exactly scare. Beyoncé cheering at an awards show. A dancing skeleton cartoon.
Those are a few of the looping clips you might see today if you open up the Giphy app. The library and studio for all things GIF is a pop culture free-for-all, covering everything from the presidential election to sports, recent and vintage TV shows and references that you’d only get if, say, you grew up with the movie ‘Clueless’ as a one-liner bible.
And while the reasons for sharing a GIF might be more whimsical than serious, Giphy’s increasing stranglehold on the mindshare around them is not. 100 million daily active users now request a GIF from Giphy across one of its mediums each day, the company says, with Giphy serving up more than 1 billion GIFs overall on a daily basis.
That number would put four-year-old Giphy at 2/3 as many users as Snapchat, which disclosed 150 million global daily active users in September, depending on how you count viewing a GIF as a user action. “Put that next to some of the larger companies in the world,” says chief operating officer Adam Leibsohn. “It’s scale that is pretty meaningful and material.”
Giphy’s gallery in New York shows off GIFs like they’re fine art. (Credit: Giphy)
Recommended by Forbes
GIF givers connect to Giphy across a range of websites and apps. Facebook Messenger, Slack, Twitter, Tinder and many more popular services all connect to Giphy’s library, which has its own search engine for tagging and surfacing specific types of GIF. (Leibsohn pronounces it with a hard “G,” by the way.) But Giphy’s own website and app are now “a big chunk” of the company’s daily traffic, its COO says.
Giphy doesn’t own the GIF, which started out as an image format in 1987, but has exploded in popularity in recent months. What it can try to own, however, are the key partnership and reach at each point of the GIF distribution chain that will make it synonymous with the term. The company runs its own studio in Los Angeles for customers such as Converse, FOX, McDonald’s, Nike and Paramount; it’s in-house GIF-makers have made GIFs viewed one billion times since April using everything from 3D animation to puppets. Giphy also works directly with artists and shows; its partnership with South Park Studios and Viacom to make GIFs of the popular cartoon have been watched 830 million times. (Election GIFs have been watched more than one billion times.)
The startup is trying a little bit of everything, it would seem, in part because investors keep giving it tens of millions in funding to explore without expecting significant revenue in the short-term. Leibsohn argues that Giphy’s different business segments are strategic. “We are deliberately working on owning the GIF stack,” he says. “We are creating the GIF stack, the GIF ecosystem.”
Despite the emergence of a host of digital sticker companies from the personalized cartoons of Bitmoji, which Snapchat acquired, to Kim Kardashian’s own emoji (Kimoji, naturally), investors believe Giphy can outlast them all. In February the company announced a $55 million Series C funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, an early investor in Snapchat. But another firm joining the round late, and secret until now, was GV, the firm known previously as Google Ventures. Partner M.G. Siegler had been looking at Slack and found that many of the use cases he observed of Slack users included them sending GIFs through Giphy. “It became clear this was as much about communication,” Siegler says.
GV joined the funding round in a second close and has been working with Giphy quietly for the past few months. Siegler says his firm is happy with Giphy focusing on its “insane growth” over making money for now. “You don’t want to be doing anything to inhibit that. A lot of experiments are taking place, and we will see which avenue ends up the one that resonates.”
Eventually Giphy will likely need to prove to partners that it can bring measurable results in sales. The owner of the rights to a popular film in syndication, for example, might offer up the movie to Giphy to chop into GIFs to promote at the front of its searches for a price. Then when the movie aired next, the partner would want to know just what sort of business boost its GIFs created in viewership. Liebsohn says that for now, marketers are excited to open up a new market and put their brands into messages they wouldn’t be able to touch otherwise. “We are inventing new ways of measuring it,” he says. “There’s more to follow.”
Giphy has more stats in its 2016 “State of the GIF” here.
Follow Alex on Forbes, Twitter and Facebook for more coverage of startups, enterprise software and venture capital.
Source:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2016/10/26/giphy-passes-100-million-users-reveals-gv-as-investor/#1e397042448e
ZNGA: 15 ANALYSTS REPORTED PRICE TARGET FOR ZYNGA,TOUCH $5,HIGH
NEWS ORACLE
WORTH WATCHING STOCK: ZYNGA, INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)
BY ED REED -
OCT 25, 2016
Many analysts are providing their Estimated Earnings analysis for Zynga, Inc. and for the current quarter 15 analysts have projected that the stock could give an Average Earnings estimate of $0.01/share. These analysts have also projected a Low Estimate of $0/share and a High Estimate of $0.02/share.
In case of Revenue Estimates,
13 analysts have provided their consensus Average Revenue Estimates for Zynga, Inc. as 187.23 Million.
According to these analysts, the Low Revenue Estimate for Zynga, Inc. is 180 Million
and the High Revenue Estimate is 195.2 Million. The company had Year Ago Sales of 175.98 Million.
Some buy side analysts are also providing their Analysis on Zynga, Inc., where 0 analysts have rated the stock as Strong buy, 0 analysts have given a Buy signal, 0 said it’s a HOLD, 0 reported it as Underperform and 0 analysts rated the stock as Sell. (These Recommendations are for the Current Month Only reported by Yahoo Finance.)
When it comes to the Analysis of a Stock, Price Target plays a vital role. 15 Analysts reported that the Price Target for Zynga, Inc. might touch $5 high while the Average Price Target and Low price Target is $3.19 and $2.5 respectively…
Source:
http://www.newsoracle.com/2016/10/25/worth-watching-stock-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga-2/
ZNGA: WELL...WORTH THE WAIT, POCKETGAMER.BIZ, DAWN OF TITANS IN TOP 10 MOST ANTICIPATED MOBILE GAMES
...AND IT LOOKS LIKE IT MIGHT WELL BE WORTH THE WAIT.
POCKETGAMER.BIZ
OUR TOP 10 MOST ANTICIPATED MOBILE GAMES: from Animal Crossing and DAWN OF TITANS to James Cameron's Avatar and Titanfall: Frontline
OCTOBER 24TH 2016, 13:00 BST
2 / 10
BY RIC COWLEY, NEWS EDITOR
•DAWN OF TITANS
DEVELOPER: NATURAL MOTION (ZYNGA)
EXPECTED PLATFORMS: ANDROID, IOS
DUE: WINTER 2016
SOFT LAUNCH?: YES
After spending what feels like an eternity in soft launch, Zynga-owned developer NaturalMotion may actually release Dawn of Titans in 2016, AND IT LOOKS LIKE IT MIGHT WELL BE WORTH THE WAIT.
Largely focused on the spectacle of high-quality graphics and huge-scale battles, THE ONLY THING BIGGER THAN THE SKIRMISHES YOU'LL ENGAGE IN ARE THE TITULAR TITANS YOU CAN CONTROL, which will provide a helpful edge in battle.
YOU'LL ALSO NEED TO BUILD AND DEFEND YOUR OWN FLOATING ISLAND KINGDOM, AS WELL AS RECRUITING AND PROMOTING YOUR REGULAR TROOPS, AND FORMING ALLIANCES WITH YOUR FRIENDS TO REMAIN AT THE TOP OF YOUR GAME.
Source:
www.pocketgamer.biz/feature/63175/ten-most-anticipated-games/entry/2/
HOTSTOCKSPOINT.COM
MARKET TRADERS ALERT – ZYNGA, INC.’S (ZNGA)
OCTOBER 25, 2016
ROBERT EBELLING, ZNGA, ZYNGA
ZYNGA, INC.’S (ZNGA)’S STOCK PRICE TRADING UPDATE:
Zynga, Inc.’s (ZNGA) stock price ended its day with a gain of 1.91% and finalized at the value of $2.93. During its last trading session, STOCK TRADED WITH THE TOTAL EXCHANGED VOLUME OF 6.17 MILLION SHARES. THE AVERAGE VOLUME STANDS AROUND 13.06 MILLION SHARES. The average numbers of shares are traded in a security per day, during the recent 3-month period. The stock has relative volume of 0.47. Relative volume is ratio between current volume and 3-month average value, intraday adjusted. Zynga, Inc.’s (ZNGA) is a part of Technology sector and belongs to Multimedia & Graphics Software industry.
Important Technical Indicators:
ATR VALUE OF COMPANY WAS 0.08 AND RELATIVE STRENGTH INDEX (RSI) WAS 56.16. THE STOCK VOLATILITY FOR WEEK WAS 2.25% WHILE FOR MONTH WAS 2.93%.THE STOCK, as of last close, traded 64.89% to its 52 week low and was changed -3.45% from its 52 week high. Beta factor, which measures the riskiness of the security, was observed as 1.31. ZNGA’s value Change from Open was at 1.21% with a Gap of 0.69%.
Earnings per share Details about ZNGA:
EPS in next five year years is expected to touch 30.00% while EPS growth in past 5 year was -25.20% along with sales growth of 5.10% in the last five years.
EPS GROWTH IN NEXT YEAR IS ESTIMATED TO REACH 165.38% WHILE EPS GROWTH ESTIMATE FOR THIS YEAR IS SET AT 48.50%.
The forward P/E ratio stands at 42.54. The price to sales ratio is 17.
PERFORMANCE REVIEW:
TO REVIEW THE ZNGA PREVIOUS PERFORMANCE, LOOK AT ITS PAST HISTORY, WHICH HIGHLIGHTED BELOW:
DURING LAST 5 TRADES THE STOCK STICKS ALMOST 5.58%.
DURING LAST ONE MONTH IT SHOWED THE CHANGE OF 3.35%.
DURING LAST 3 MONTH IT REMAINED AT 1.91%.
ALONG WITH THESE ITS YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE IS STANDING AT 9.51%.
Analysts Mean Rating:
Analysts’ mean recommendation for Zynga, Inc.’s (ZNGA) stands at 2.80. Rating Scale; where 1.0 rating means Strong Buy, 2.0 rating signify Buy, 3.0 recommendation reveals Hold, 4.0 rating score shows Sell and 5.0 displays Strong Sell signal.
ZNGA STOCK PRICE COMPARISON TO MOVING AVERAGES:
USA BASED COMPANY, ZYNGA, INC.’S (ZNGA)’S LATEST CLOSING PRICE WAS 15.59% FROM THE AVERAGE-PRICE OF 200 DAYS WHILE IT MAINTAINED A DISTANCE FROM THE 50 DAY MOVING AVERAGE AT 4.51% AND 1.75% COMPARED WITH THE 20 DAY MOVING AVERAGE.
Source:
http://www.hotstockspoint.com/market-traders-alert-zynga-inc-s-znga/
ZNGA: SEPTEMBER SHORT INTEREST IN ZYNGA DECLINES BY 13.8%
SHORT INTEREST IN ZYNGA INC. (ZNGA) DECLINES BY 13.8%
POSTED BY SHANE HUPP ON OCT 21ST, 2016
Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) was the target of A LARGE DROP IN SHORT INTEREST DURING THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER. AS OF SEPTEMBER 30TH, there was short interest totalling 19,391,370 shares, a drop of 13.8% from the September 15th total of 22,488,191 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 11,234,064 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.7 days. Approximately 2.6% of the company’s shares are sold short…
Source:
baseballnewssource.com/markets/short-interest-in-zynga-inc-znga-declines-by-13-8/165164.html
ZNGA: ...MAJOR MOVE COMING FOR ZYNGA AFTER BULLISH,DOUBLE,TOP...
DOUBLE TOPS ARE RARE, BUT POWERFUL CHART PATTERNS
TECHNICAL REPORT: IS MAJOR MOVE COMING FOR ZYNGA INC AFTER THIS BULLISH DOUBLE TOP?
OCTOBER 18, 2016 CHESTER STAFF WRITER
THE CHART OF ZYNGA INC (ZNGA) SHOWS A DOUBLE TOP with $4.60 target or 61.00% above today’s $2.86 share price. THE 8 MONTHS CHART PATTERN INDICATES LOW RISK FOR THE $2.46 BILLION COMPANY. It was reported on Oct, 18 by Finviz.com. If the $4.60 price target is reached, the company will be worth $1.50 billion more. DOUBLE TOPS ARE RARE BUT POWERFUL CHART PATTERNS. About 7.15 million shares traded hands. Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) has risen 25.23% since March 15, 2016 and is uptrending. It has outperformed by 19.74% the S&P500…
Source:
www.chesterindependent.com/2016/10/18/technical-report-is-major-move-coming-for-zynga-inc-after-this-bullish-double-top/
ANALYSTS VALUATIONS FOR ZYNGA, INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)
ANALYSTS VALUATIONS FOR TWO STOCKS: HUNTINGTON BANCSHARES INCORPORATED (NASDAQ:HBAN), ZYNGA, INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)
Lewis Gonzalez — October 19, 2016
...What Analyst’s Think about Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)
Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) shares currently have a mean rating of 2.80 while 3 analysts have recommended the shares as ‘BUY’, 2 commented as ‘OUTPERFORM’ and 8 commented as ‘HOLD’. The rating score is on a scale of 1-5 where 1 stands for strong buy and 5 stands for sell. The mean price target for the company’s stock is $3.19 while the highest price target suggested by the analysts is $5.00 and low price target is $2.50. The mean price target is calculated keeping in view the consensus of 15 brokerage firms.
Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) has a mean revenue estimate for the ongoing quarter ending Sep 16 of $187.23M, according to 13 analysts. THE AVERAGE FORECAST OF SALES FOR THE YEAR ENDING DEC 16 IS $744.99M BY 14 ANALYSTS.
Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) went up 1.44% during trading on 10/18/2016, closing at $2.82. The stock had a trading capacity of 13.74M shares. The firm has a SMA 50 (Simple Moving Average) of $2.85 and a SMA 200-(Simple Moving Average) of $2.66. This appreciation has taken its current market value to2.53B. Shares registered one year high at $3.04 and the one year low of $1.78.
Earnings Overview For Zynga, Inc.
Company latest quarter ended on 30 Jun 2016. There were earnings of $0 per share. The reported earnings topped the analyst’s consensus by $0.
Source:
voiceregistrar.com/2016/10/19/analysts-valuations-for-two-stocks-huntington-bancshares-incorporated-nasdaqhban-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga/
ZNGA: MASSIVE TREASURE TROVE$ OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIE$ INCREASING
ZYNGA PATENTS GRANTED
•STATE MACHINE SCRIPTING IN COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED GAMES
Patent number: 9463386
Abstract: A gaming environment may be established, by executing a game engine module to provide an interactive game instance, and instantiating a state machine instance using one or both of a state machine client module or a state machine server module. In an example, during execution of the game engine module, scripting commands within a state machine definition may be parsed and executed to obtain information indicative of one or more of a state of an in-game object or a state transition of an in-game object. An in-game object may be controlled within the game instance via the state machine using at least a portion of the information obtained from parsing and executing the scripting commands. Use of the state machine definitions in conjunction with the scripting commands may ENABLE REPRESENTATION OF COMPLEX SCENARIOS FOR VIRTUAL OBJECTS AND EVENTS IN THE GAMING ENVIRONMENT IN A SIMPLIFIED FORMAT.
Type: Grant
Filed: April 30, 2012
Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventors: Peter Chapman, Andrew Foster, Michael Capps
•METHODS AND SYSTEMS RELATING TO OBTAINING GAME ASSET VALUE
Patent number: 9463389
Abstract: A SYSTEM, COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM STORING AT LEAST ONE PROGRAM, AND A COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHOD FOR OBTAINING GAME ASSET VALUE IS PROVIDED. One or more requests to add one or more first game assets to a game user interface of a player is received from a client device of the player. The first game assets are provided in response to the first requests. A second request to obtain a value associated with the second game asset on the game user interface is received, where the second game asset is different than the first game assets. It is determined whether a predetermined amount of time has elapsed, where the predetermined amount of time is based on a number of the first game assets. The value associated with the second game asset is provided to a game account of the player if the predetermined amount of time has elapsed.
Type: Grant
Filed: October 5, 2012
Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventors: Robert Brian Reynolds, Isaac Charles Ellis
•SYSTEM FOR USER INTERACTION AROUND A COMMON COMPUTER GAME OBJECTIVE
Patent number: 9457278
Abstract: A COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHOD COMPRISES IDENTIFYING A USER OF A COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED GAME TO INTERACT WITH A FURTHER USER IN PURSUIT OF A COMMON GAME OBJECTIVE. The identifying is performed based at least partially on the user not being directly related, as reflected within relationship data, with the further user. Interactions, within the computer implemented-game, between the further user and the user in the pursuit of the common game objective of the computer-implemented game are enabled responsive to the identifying of the user.
Type: Grant
Filed: September 26, 2011
Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventors: Sudhanshu Pintu Sethi, Matthew Adam Ocko
•GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACES IN COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED MULTIPLAYER GAMES
Patent number: 9457274
Abstract: This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods to provide graphical user interfaces in computer-implemented multiplayer games. The graphical user interface includes a friends panel that is operable between a collapsed condition and an expanded condition. The friends panel provides friends information display functionality, social network management functionality, and/or messaging functionality both in the collapsed condition and in the expanded condition. IN THE COLLAPSED CONDITION, THE FRIENDS PANEL MAY COMPRISE A FRIENDS BAR THAT SHOWS A ROW OF FRIEND CARDS OR CHICLETS ASSOCIATED WITH RESPECTIVE FRIENDS OF A HOST PLAYER ASSOCIATED WITH A DISPLAYED GAME INSTANCE, the friends bar being clear of a view of a virtual in-game environment shown in the game display, while the expanded friends panel may comprise a grid of friend cards or chiclets that functionally obscures the in-game environment.
Type: Grant
Filed: August 15, 2014
Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventor: Curtis Lee
•PUBLIC GAMEPLAY
Patent number: 9446321
Abstract: A system, computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program, and a computer-implemented method for providing public gameplay is provided. Gameboard display data is generated to display a gameboard of a game. A move associated with the game is received from a client device of a player. THE GAMEBOARD DISPLAY DATA AND MOVE DISPLAY DATA ARE PROVIDED TO THE CLIENT DEVICE TO DISPLAY THE MOVE ON THE GAMEBOARD. The gameboard display data and the move display data are also sent to a broadcast server to display the move on the gameboard via a public medium.
Type: Grant
Filed: March 29, 2012
Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventors: M. Ian Graham, Ya-Bing Chu, Randall William Allred, Jr., Christopher Delbuck
•PACKAGE MANAGER VERIFIER
Patent number: 9448780
ABSTRACT: AN RPM VERIFIER IS DESCRIBED. A MASTER CONFIGURATION FILE AND A LIST OF HOST SERVERS ARE RETRIEVED. The master configuration file defines rules for approved versions of software packages installed on each host server in the list. The RPM verifier queries each host server in the list for a version identifier of one or more software packages installed on each host server. The rules are applied to the version identifier to identify one or more mis-configured software packages on each host server.
Type: Grant
Filed: December 13, 2011
Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventor: Ben Hall
•ANIMATION PROCESSING OF LINKED OBJECT PARTS
Patent number: 9449416
Abstract: THE INVENTION RELATES TO A METHOD AND SYSTEM OF FORMING AN ANIMATION OF A VIRTUAL OBJECT WITHIN A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT, and a storage medium storing a computer program for carrying out such a method. THE VIRTUAL OBJECT COMPRISES A PLURALITY OF OBJECT PARTS, AND ONE OR MORE PREDETERMINED OBJECT PART GROUPS each being a sequence of linked object parts. The method includes generating a target configuration for the parts of the object part group, using a scale factor to scale the target configuration.
Type: Grant
Filed: February 29, 2012
Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventors: Danny Chapman, Thomas Lowe
•LOCALIZATION FRAMEWORK FOR DYNAMIC TEXT
Patent number: 9442924
Abstract: An apparatus and method providing a localization framework capable of localizing dynamic text is disclosed herein. THE LOCALIZATION FRAMEWORK IS CONFIGURED TO AUTOMATICALLY IDENTIFY AND PRIORITIZE CERTAIN TEXT CONTAINED WITHIN AN APPLICATION CODE BASE TO BE TRANSLATED. Such text is pre-processed prior to translation to facilitate accurate and complete translation in a target language.
Type: Grant
Filed: December 18, 2015
Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventors: Bigi Lui, Danica Milosevic Brinton, Eric Matsumura, John Huan Vu
•MANAGING LOCATION-BASED META GAMES
Patent number: 9440146
Abstract: In a method of managing a location-based meta game, a presence of a device is detected at a location. The device is configured to execute a computer-implemented game. Based on the detecting of the presence of the device, THE DEVICE IS INSTRUCTED TO PRESENT A USER OF THE COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED GAME WITH AN OPTION TO PARTICIPATE IN A COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED META GAME ASSOCIATED WITH THE LOCATION.
Type: Grant
Filed: August 23, 2011
Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventors: Justin Rouse, Kevin Holme, Daniel Hurd, Jason Tomlinson, Grant Yang, Shawn Lohstroh, Jessica Oyhenart, David Chow
•SOCIAL GAME SYSTEMS AND METHODS
Patent number: 9433855
Abstract: Systems and methods that provide online social game contests are described. In some embodiments, a method determines a start time and an end point associated with an online social game contest. MULTIPLE USERS PARTICIPATING IN THE ONLINE GAME CONTEST ARE IDENTIFIED, AND THE CONTEST IS INITIATED AT THE START TIME. EACH OF THE MULTIPLE USERS HAS A SEPARATE ONLINE SOCIAL GAME ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH THEY PARTICIPATE IN THE CONTEST. The online social game contest ends upon reaching the end point.
Type: Grant
Filed: June 20, 2012
Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventors: Kevin Keeker, Christian Selchau-Hansen
•SHARING AN APPLICATION CONFIGURATION AMONG SOCIAL NETWORKS
Patent number: 9426212
Abstract: A machine may generate and store a correlation among multiple identifiers of the user that enable access to an application through multiple systems. For example, the user may have a first identifier for using a first social network system, and a second identifier for using a second social network system, and the machine may generate and store a correlation between the first identifier and the second identifier. The machine may identify the user based on the first identifier and access a database that stores the correlation. The machine may then access a configuration of the application based on the correlation and configure the application in accordance with the configuration. The machine may generate a visual representation of the configured application, provide the visual representation to a device of a further user, receive an indication of an opinion of the further user on the visual representation, and present the indication.
Type: Grant
Filed: December 18, 2015
Date of Patent: August 23, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventors: Dylan Sproule, Shane Hall, Ben Hall, Timothy J. O. Catlin, Jason Paul Allen, Clayton Rhodes Stark
•SYSTEM AND METHODS TO DISPLAY ICONS BASED ON MESSAGING ACTIVITY
Patent number: 9421453
Abstract: A system, computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program, and a computer-implemented method to display icons based on messaging activity is provided. A request to access a game user interface of the first player is received from a client device of a first player, the game user interface being associated with a computer-implemented game. First player messaging activity information associated with messaging activity of the first player is accessed, the messaging activity of the first player including receipt of a message from one or more players associated with the computer-implemented game. A first manner of displaying one or more icons each identifying the one or more players is determined including determining the first manner based on the first player messaging information. Display data to display the one or more icons in the first manner within the game user interface is provided to the client device.
Type: Grant
Filed: July 23, 2013
Date of Patent: August 23, 2016
Assignee: Zynga Inc.
Inventors: Raja Ramachandran, Ross W. Danielson, Sachin B. Pansuria, Dylan A. Tarre
•METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LINKED PLAY GAMING
Patent number: 9412218
ABSTRACT: THE INVENTION INCLUDES A SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING LINKED PLAY VIA GAMING AND OTHER DEVICES. IN SOME EMBODIMENTS, A CASINO SERVER REGISTERS A GROUP FOR LINKED PLAY AND A GROUP OBJECTIVE AND FORMAT ARE ESTABLISHED. The linked play commences according to the group format on the gaming devices while the casino server, or another device, concurrently facilitates interaction between the group members operating the gaming devices. The linked play is terminated according to the group format and a determination is made by the casino server whether the group objective has been achieved. Prizes are awarded via the gaming devices if the group objective was achieved.
Type: Grant
Filed: February 6, 2007
Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
Assignee: Zynga, Inc.
Inventors: Jay S. Walker, James A. Jorasch, Daniel E. Tedesco, Stephen C. Tulley, Geoffrey M. Gelman, Steven M. Santisi
Source:
patents.justia.com/company/zynga?list=patents
WINS IN YOUR PORTFOLIO WITH COMPANIES ZYNGA, FANDUEL, IPSY,
EQUITIES.COM
FANDUEL, IPSY, ZYNGA, MARKETO: HERE’S HOW BULLPEN CAPITAL KEEPS WORKING ITS MAGIC
HENRY TRUC | THURSDAY, 13 OCTOBER 2016 17:16 (EST)
IT’S A FASCINATING TIME TO BE AN INVESTOR IN THE PRIVATE MARKETS RIGHT NOW. ON ONE END OF THE SPECTRUM, COMPANIES WITH MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR VALUATIONS ARE STAYING PRIVATE MUCH LONGER THAN THEY’VE HISTORICALLY BEEN ABLE TO, THANKS IN LARGE PART TO THE DEEP-POCKETED VENTURE AND INSTITUTIONAL FUNDS WILLING TO CUT THE BIG CHECKS TO GET AHEAD OF THE EVENTUAL IPO. On the other end, new regulations like the JOBS Act have opened up the ability for self-directed retail investors to participate in early-stage startups and private emerging growth companies.
But IN BETWEEN THE SEED STAGE AND “SUPER-SIZED” A ROUNDS OF FINANCING EXISTS BULLPEN CAPITAL, A VENTURE FUND TARGETING THAT SWEET SPOT THAT MOST OTHER FIRMS TYPICALLY OVERLOOK. In this Equities.com exclusive interview, Bullpen Capital’s Paul Martino breaks down his firm’s unique strategy and the traits he looks for when winners in the private market.
WITH NAMES LIKE FANDUEL, IPSY, ZYNGA (ZNGA), MARKETO (MKTO), and a host of other eight- and nine-figure companies under Bullpen’s belt, it’s safe to say Martino knows exactly what he’s talking about
EQ: Bullpen Capital describes itself as a lean venture, super-angel fund. How does your approach to the VC space set you apart?
Martino: It's very funny because I would say the vast majority of people in our business go on gut deals. They go on things like, “This market is big,” “I like the founder,” “This space is going to be huge” or say things like, “Five years from now 3D printing is going to be big” and “10 years from now everyone is going to have self-driving cars.” So when we started our fund we thought that THIS LEFT AN OPENING FOR USING A MORE ANALYTIC APPROACH TO VENTURE INVESTING.
I’M A LIFETIME WINNING SPORTS BETTOR JUST AS AN FYI. A lot of my bets that I ever made were against my hometown Eagles over the years. THIS TAUGHT ME A LOT ABOUT HOW TO SEPARATE YOUR EMOTIONS FROM THE DATA. I ALWAYS HAD THIS IN MY MIND AS WE WERE LOOKING AT COMPANIES. Just go look at the numbers. Companies are going to win if they have awesome numbers. We're one of the only funds anywhere in the early-stage that operates this way. Obviously, later-stage funds in the public equities space work this way, but THEY'RE VERY FEW PEOPLE AT EARLY STAGE WHO OPERATE LIKE THIS.
EQ: One of the biggest challenges of getting analytical in the private markets is the availability of data. How do you do it?
Martino: We have one key requirement in our companies: We won’t invest unless their product is in market. We aren’t bleeding in the early stage. We won’t invest in science projects or PowerPoints, but we will invest in a company that has had its product out for only 90 days. At that point, we find we're able to project very well which companies are going to be winners based on a purely analytical framework as opposed to a lot of prognostication.
This is why the Bullpen model is investing at the post seed stage. Our whole mantra is it's early but it works. Our companies have typically been around for 12 to 18 months. Their products are out in the market for three to six months. It's too early for most people to be able to say if that's a winner or a loser, but we've honed our skills in trying to figure that out on the small datasets. It’s a very different approach.
EQ: There seems to be two prevailing schools of thought in the VC space. Some firms make dozens if not hundreds of small deals a year, and others make very concentrated bets in one or two deals a year. Where does Bullpen stand on that?
Martino: Our whole business model exists because of the dislocation created from those two business models. Back in the day, there was only one style of venture investing: the life cycle. Make two or three bets a year and invest every round of financing. That is how Sequoia, Kleiner and Bessemer got started. But 10 or so years ago, Josh Kopelman at First Round and guys like FloodGate and Jeff Clavier at Softech invented this kind of option-buying model style of investing. So higher volume, lots of shots on goal, let the losers die quickly and double down on your winners.
So you have your life-cycle investors and your option buying investors. In between those two models exists this spot that post-seed fits into, which is where Bullpen lives.
EQ: You’ve got some nice WINS IN YOUR PORTFOLIO WITH COMPANIES LIKE FANDUEL, IPSY, ZYNGA and others. What other companies that you found that you thought you have gotten in at the right time?
Martino: I would say almost every company in the portfolio. Other examples are Namely in the HR space out of New York. Spot Hero out of Chicago with on-demand parking. These were all companies doing their first half-million to million dollars in revenue by the time we invested. But they weren’t the kinds of things that other Series A investors were confident would be breakout winners.
In the case of Fanduel, for example, they were just getting to the point where they were at about a million-dollar run rate. It was interesting enough to pay attention to but most people were like, “Oh fantasy sports is a scary category.” “Oh, the company is in Edinborough, Scotland.” “Oh, it's a husband and wife founding team.” All that gut stuff didn’t match. But we looked at their numbers and we saw these guys were making a million-dollar a year run rate with only 10,000 registered users. There aren’t many companies that have numbers like that. To us, this looked like it could be a winner. There weren’t many companies back in 2011 that had 10,000 downloads and making a million dollars.
IF YOU TOOK IT FROM A PURELY ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK, FANDUEL WAS AN EASY INVESTMENT. But if you took the gut feel around the team and the geography and the category, it was an easy no.
EQ: We know capital is very important, but there are other considerations that startups need to factor in when taking on investors. What kind of value does Bullpen bring startups and entrepreneurs, aside from the capital?
Martino: We're going to put you in boot camp and show you how to turn the crank to go from $50,000 a month to $500,000 a month. That is what our whole value proposition to the entrepreneur is about.
My partners (Duncan Davidson, Eric Wiesen, and Richard Melmon) and I know how to run companies. Between us, we’ve started 14 companies. I started five, one with Marc Pincus [Co-Founder of Zynga] called Tribe. I started Aggregate Knowledge, which was acquired by Neustar (NSR). Rich Melmon started Electronic Arts (EA). Duncan Davidson started Covad Communications. We come from telecom, computer gaming, predictive modelling. We have run a company of almost every stripe at this point.
When we give money to an entrepreneur, we basically tell them, “Here is the money. For the next year, I’m going to go kick your butt so that you can hit these milestones and a year from now, we can take this deal to Accel, Greylock, Kleiners and Sequoia.”
When you talk to our CEOs–like the CEO of Namely, the CEO of Fanduel–they’ll tell you that no one gave them the time of day when Martino and his guys over at Bullpen invested, but a year later, after going through that boot camp, they became the darlings of Silicon Valley.
IF WE PLAY THE GAME RIGHT, WE'RE THE LAST CHEAP MONEY THAT GOES INTO THE DEAL.
EQ: New rules like equity crowdfunding and Reg A+ have opened up the private markets to some extent to average investors to provide a new pool of capital for startups. How has this affected your business?
Martino: From our perspective, it literally gives us more opportunities to play our game. If our game is to find a company in year two after its seed money, then the more ways that they have to raise that early money–whether it be seed financing from first round, equity crowdfunding, or AngelList, it’s great. Unless there's a high volume of companies coming out of that seed ecosystem, we can’t do our magic. EVERY TIME AN EARLY STAGE FORM OF FINANCING GETS INVENTED, IT CREATES MORE COMPANIES FOR US TO PLAY OUR GAME. WE ARE SUPER SUPPORTIVE OF THESE EFFORTS BECAUSE IT BASICALLY GIVES US MORE CHANCES FOR OUR MAGIC TO WORK.
EQ: Are there any particular areas you’re looking at or avoiding outright?
Martino: There are plenty of areas that are overhyped right now. I mean virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence are so ridiculously overhyped right now. THEY’RE JUST LIKE WHAT BITCOIN WAS TWO OR THREE YEARS AGO. IN GENERAL, WE STAY FAR AWAY FROM THOSE CATEGORIES when they're at the beginning of the hype cycle. We wait until the hype cycle dies down, and companies are out in the market and they’re making their metrics.
One of the first deals we did in our third fund is an e-commerce deal we did at the beginning of the summer. WE HAVEN’T ANNOUNCED IT SO I WON’T TELL YOU THE NAME BUT WE DID THAT COMPANY WHEN THE WHOLE E-COMMERCE CATEGORY WAS IN THE TOILET. NO ONE WANTED TOOK AT E-COMMERCE. TWO MONTHS AFTER WE DO THE DEAL DOLLAR SHAVE GETS BOUGHT FOR A $1 AND JET.COM FOR $3 BILLION. NOW, EVERYBODY IS SCAMPERING FOR WHICH E-COMMERCE DEAL THEY SHOULD THEY BE IN. IT’S FUNNY TO US HOW HERD-ORIENTED THE VENTURE PEOPLE ARE IN THE LATER STAGES. If you're in a category in or out of favor dictates what the valuation looks like.
EQ: What about the areas that you think have some attractive opportunities?
Martino: We’re always looking at things that are in the trough of disillusioned phase. For example, we're looking at Bitcoin companies right now because that’s just not hot anymore. Too many people lost money on the first wave of companies.
AND IN TWO OR THREE YEARS, GUESS WHAT WE'RE GOING TO BE DOING? WE’RE GOING TO BE DOING A WHOLE LOT OF AI COMPANIES BECAUSE THOSE GUYS WILL COME BACK TO EARTH. THEY’LL HAVE GONE OUT OF THAT HYPE/FROTH CYCLE, BACK DOWN TO BASICS and when they’re back down to basics is when Bullpen invests. In many ways, we look at the categories people aren’t looking at anymore because they were hot a year or two ago. That is a big part of how our strategy works.
DISCLOSURE: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors, and do not represent the views of equities.com. Readers should not consider statements made by the author as formal recommendations and should consult their financial advisor before making any investment decisions. To read our full disclosure, please go to: www.equities.com/disclaimer
Source:
https://www.equities.com/news/fanduel-ipsy-zynga-marketo-here-s-how-bullpen-capital-keeps-working-its-magic
ZNGA: MUST THANK APPLE, ANALYSTS OPTIMISTIC FOR ZYNGA
ANALYSTS showing OPTIMISTIC TRENDS FOR: ZYNGA, INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)
BY ADAM SMITH -
OCT 6, 2016
ZYNGA, INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) REPORTED ITS LAST EARNINGS ON 9/30/2016.
THE COMPANY WILL REPORT ITS NEXT EARNINGS ON 11/1/2016.
SOME BUY SIDE ANALYSTS ARE ALSO PROVIDING THEIR ANALYSIS ON ZYNGA, INC., WHERE…
2 ANALYSTS HAVE RATED THE STOCK AS STRONG BUY,
3 ANALYSTS HAVE GIVEN A BUY SIGNAL,
8 SAID IT’S A HOLD,
3 REPORTED IT AS UNDERPERFORM
AND 0 ANALYSTS RATED THE STOCK AS SELL...
Source:
www.newsoracle.com/2016/10/06/analysts-showing-optimistic-trends-for-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga-2/
BY AMAN JAIN ON OCTOBER 4, 2016 9:45 AM IN TECHNOLOGY
...ZYNGA MUST THANK APPLE
APPLE INTRODUCED THE APP STORE FOR IMESSAGE in the latest revision of its mobile operating system. It allows developers to launch apps with full integration with the iPhone messaging platform.ZYNGA MADE FULL USE OF THAT OPPORTUNITY, RESULTING IN HUGE POPULARITY FOR THE GAME iOS 10 users can play matches and chat about them with their friends by appearing in the App Store for iMessage, notes Venture Beat…
Source:
http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/10/zynga-words-friends-downloads-apple/
ZNGA: JPMORGAN CHASE ADDS 3,417,638 SHARES, ALABAMA ADDS 4,250,000 SHARES,...ANALYSTS EARNINGS TARGET ($22.5) 3-5 YEARS.
ANALYSTS HAVE PER-SHARE EARNINGS TARGET OF $22.5 ON FIRM’S STOCK OVER 3-5 YEARS.
RETIREMENT SYSTEMS OF ALABAMA HAS $16,135,000 STAKE IN ZYNGA INC. (ZNGA)
OCTOBER 1ST, 2016 - BY SCOTT MOORE -
RETIREMENT SYSTEMS OF ALABAMA RAISED ITS POSITION IN ZYNGA INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) BY 190.6% during the second quarter, ACCORDING TO ITS MOST RECENT FILING WITH THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION (SEC).
The fund owned 6,480,000 shares of the company’s stock after BUYING AN ADDITIONAL 4,250,000 SHARES DURING THE PERIOD.
Retirement Systems of Alabama owned approximately 0.74% of Zynga worth $16,135,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. DNB ASSET MANAGEMENT AS RAISED ITS STAKE IN ZYNGA BY 48.5% in the second quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 12,384,136 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,836,000 after BUYING AN ADDITIONAL 4,043,929 SHARES in the last quarter.
Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in Zynga by 26.1% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 9,521,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,709,000 after BUYING AN ADDITIONAL 1,973,227 SHARES in the last quarter.
Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its position in Zynga by 70.0% in the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 5,086,950 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,598,000 after BUYING AN ADDITIONAL 2,094,986 SHARES in the last quarter.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Zynga by 2,280.1% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,567,526 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,134,000 after BUYING AN ADDITIONAL 3,417,638 SHARES in the last quarter.
Finally, NORGES BANK BOUGHT A NEW POSITION IN ZYNGA during the fourth quarter worth $8,264,000. Institutional investors own 59.36% of the company’s stock.
Shares of Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) traded up 3.56% on Friday, reaching $2.91. 16,957,843 shares of the company were exchanged. Zynga Inc. has a 52 week low of $1.78 and a 52 week high of $3.02. The company’s market capitalization is $2.57 billion. The company’s 50-day moving average is $2.77 and its 200-day moving average is $2.61...
Source:
http://www.thecerbatgem.com/2016/10/01/retirement-systems-of-alabama-has-16135000-stake-in-zynga-inc-znga.html
ZACKS ALLOTS 2.33 SCORE TO ZYNGA INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)
OCTOBER 1, 2016 9:17 AM•
ZACKS GROUP HAS STATED ZYNGA INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) HAS AFFIRMATIVE GROWTH STYLE SCORE AFTER THE COMPANY REPORTED OF STRONG EARNINGS.
ANALYSTS HAVE PER-SHARE EARNINGS TARGET OF $22.5 ON FIRM’S STOCK OVER 3-5 YEARS. The consensus target is $3.316, which is the mean of 9 calls.
Market is flooded with numerous research houses, and each one of them applies a unique research methodology to list value stocks. Nevertheless, the buyers find these ratings enormously confusing, and it is the purpose behind ZACKS IDEA OF ADVANCING RATING SCALE OF 1-5. ZACKS PLACES A RATING OF ONE TO ALL THOSE EQUITIES THAT ARE LIKELY TO OUTSTRIP IN COMING PERIOD AND REMUNERATE SHAREHOLDERS WITH HEFTY RETURNS.
Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s has rating of 2.33. The price range prediction is $2.5 to $5.
Mean estimates are far from best; still they are accounted in investment list by many investors before finalizing an investment decision. These forecasts play a vital part in reaching the equity valuation.
Investors assess equity performance taking into account firm’s earnings power. To perform an appropriate estimation, shareholders look for a comprehensive evaluation of future EPS, as well as a vigorous sense of expected revenue in the long-term.
AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF SERVICES TO CLIENTELES, MANY LARGE RESEARCH HOUSES OF WALL STREET EMPLOY NUMEROUS ANALYSTS TO ISSUE RESEARCH REPORTS ON ORGANIZATIONS’ earnings in the future.
A consensus number is typically a median or mean of all the forecasts from individual analysts trailing a particular equity. So, when shareholders hear that a firm projected EPS is $1.50 in current fiscal, that number could be the mean of around 20 different forecasts. On contrary, if it’s a start-up, the forecast could be the mean of 1-2 analyst calls.
Source:
theenterpriseleader.com/analyst-research/zacks-allots-2-33-score-to-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga/164390/
ZNGA: WORDS WITH FRIENDS DOWNLOADS GREW 74%
WORDS WITH FRIENDS DOWNLOADS GREW 74% ON IPHONE AFTER LAUNCHING ON THE APP STORE FOR IMESSAGE
JEFF GRUBB OCTOBER 3, 2016 6:30 PM
TAGS: APP STORE FOR IMESSAGE, APPLE, IOS, IOS 10, IPAD, IPHONE, MOBILE GAMING, WORDS WITH FRIENDS, ZYNGA
Above: Words With Friends is one of the first game to take advantage of the new App Store for iMessage.
APPLE HAS A NEW APP STORE, AND IT IS HELPING AT LEAST ONE GAME FIND RENEWED INTEREST FROM MOBILE GAMERS.
ZYNGA’S WORDS WITH FRIENDS APP EXPERIENCED 74 PERCENT GROWTH IN DOWNLOADS THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 12 COMPARED TO THE PRIOR 7-DAY PERIOD thanks to the debut of iOS 10, ACCORDING TO INTELLIGENCE FIRM SENSOR TOWER. In the latest revision of its mobile operating system, Apple introduced the APP STORE FOR IMESSAGE THAT ENABLES DEVELOPERS TO RELEASE APPS WITH FULL INTEGRATION WITH THE IPHONE MESSAGING PLATFORM. ZYNGA JUMPED ON THAT OPPORTUNITY, AND THAT RESULTED IN BIG GROWTH FOR THE GAME.
BY APPEARING IN THE APP STORE FOR IMESSAGE, IOS 10 USERS CAN START MATCHES AND CHAT ABOUT THEM WITH THEIR FRIENDS. Other developers are using this new feature to introduce GIFs and sticker packs to iMessage. The JibJab app that enables iPhone users to create their own animated stickers saw an enormous jump in downloads of 1,583 percent once the iMessage integration went live.
Words With Friends, meanwhile, benefited from jumping on this new App Store early because it is one of the few games to do so.
“The top five was rounded out by Zynga’s Words With Friends, the classic word building game,” Sensor Tower head of mobile insights Randy Nelson wrote in a blog. “[It] received heavy featuring from Apple as one of the first gaming titles — and the only in our top 10 — to feature direct iMessage integration.”
This shows that Zynga is still looking for fresh ways to stay competitive and relevant on mobile. Words With Friends debuted in 2009, and it is still one of Zynga’s most important properties as it represent a significant portion of the company’s monthly active players. iMessage support is an example of how the publisher is working to bring in new players. And CONSIDERING THAT PAID OFF, IT’S LIKELY THAT ZYNGA MAY DO THE SAME WITH MORE GAMES IN THE FUTURE.
Source:
venturebeat.com/2016/10/03/words-with-friends-downloads-grew-74-on-iphone-after-launching-on-the-app-store-for-imessage/
ZNGA: ATTRACTING MORE ATTENTION, POP AT ANY TIME, A TAKEOVER…IN THE CARDS, DEVELOPING STORY, TRADERS ARE DIALED IN
• A TAKEOVER,... IN THE CARDS FOR ZYNGA.
• ZYNGA INC (NASDAQ:ZNGA) SPECULATORS SEEM TO BE ACCUMULATING ZYNGA STOCK
• TRADERS WHO ARE DIALED INTO ZYNGA AND MOBILE GAMING IN GENERAL, KNOW THIS GIANT GAMER CAN POP AT ANY TIME.
• UNDERVALUED AT CURRENT LEVELS...
• DEVELOPING STORY IN THE MID-CAP CIRCLES and WE WILL CONTINUE TO FOLLOW it CLOSELY.
ZYNGA INC (NASDAQ:ZNGA) ATTRACTING MORE ATTENTION
BY GENE DANIEL -
OCTOBER 1, 2016
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ZYNGA INC (NASDAQ:ZNGA) SPECULATORS SEEM TO BE ACCUMULATING ZYNGA STOCK this month, and shareholders are anxiously awaiting the upcoming November 1 earnings announcement. TRADERS WHO ARE DIALED INTO ZYNGA AND MOBILE GAMING IN GENERAL, KNOW THIS GIANT GAMER CAN POP AT ANY TIME.
Shares gained some traction to end the week ending up 3.56 percent to $2.91. Furthermore, ZNGA shares are up over 18% in the last 3 months, and the consensuses price target now stands at $3.18 up over 11 percent over the same time frame.
WHAT HAS FUELED THE RECENT PRICE MOMENTUM, is no doubt, directly related to the buzz and excitement surrounding the hot and lucrative mobile gaming sector. The industry has grabbed media attention with the Pokemon phenomenon and advances in mobile platforms.
ZYNGA INC (NASDAQ:ZNGA) ALSO MADE SOME NEWS THIS WEEK WITH A FAMILIAR HIRE. ZNGA NAMED GAMES AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY VETERAN GERARD GRIFFIN AS CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER on Sept. 29, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zynga Inc. (Nasdaq:ZNGA), a leading social game developer, today announced that the Company has appointed Gerard Griffin as Chief Financial Officer effective immediately. GRIFFIN WILL OVERSEE ACCOUNTING, FINANCE AND INVESTOR RELATIONS, AND WILL REPORT DIRECTLY TO CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER FRANK GIBEAU.
“I’ve always had a passion for media and entertainment, and I’m incredibly excited by Zynga’s unique ability to connect people around the world through games,” said Griffin. “With a strong portfolio of innovative IP, deep player relationships and incredible talent, the company is well positioned to be a leader in the growing mobile industry. I look forward to partnering collaboratively with Frank and the rest of the team to deliver on Zynga’s potential and long-term value through a player-first approach to building great games.”
It’s obvious ZNGA has connected with people around the world. Zynga games have been played by more than 1 billion people around the world, and are available on a number of global platforms including Apple iOS, Google Android, Facebook and Zynga.com. Now the question remains; can an Zynga re-connect with investors?
Zynga Inc. corporate headquarter’s are in San Francisco, California. ZNGA is a leading developer of the world’s most popular social games that are played by more than 100 million monthly consumers. ZNGA is a provider of social game services. The Company develops, markets and operates social games as live services played on mobile platforms, such as iPhone Operating System (iOS) and Android and social networking sites, such as Facebook. The Company operates through developing and monetizing social games segment. It has developed various social games, including games in its Slots, Words With Friends, Zynga Poker and FarmVille franchises.
The Company also launched various games on mobile and Web, including Words on Tour and FarmVille: Harvest Swap in the Casual category; Black Diamond Casino and Princess Bride Slots in the Social Casino category; Empires & Allies in the Action Strategy category, and Mountain Goat Mountain. It invests in various game categories, including Social Casino, Casual, Action Strategy and Invest Express. It analyzes the data generated by its players’ game play and social interactions to guide the creation of content and features.
The games are generally popular, but all in all, Zynga has largely been in a downtrend since its IPO in 2011. Many readers may recall Dec 11th, 2011 when Zynga priced its IPO at $10 a share with a market cap of 7 Billion (current Market Cap stands at 3 Billion). ZNGA began trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange, and shares soared as high as $11.50 before falling back, dropping to $9.52 in its first 15 minutes of trading. The stock spent most of the day below $10 and closed at $9.50, down 5% from its offering price.
Needless to say ZNGA has been tough on many investors since the euphoria of the IPO wore off. But all is not lost, THE BOTTOM LINE IS IMPROVING IN 2016 and some analysts believe the company is UNDERVALUED AT CURRENT LEVELS. LOOKING AHEAD; A TAKEOVER, OR TAKEOUT, could potentially be IN THE CARDS FOR ZYNGA. This is an DEVELOPING STORY IN THE MID-CAP CIRCLES and WE WILL CONTINUE TO FOLLOW it CLOSELY.
Source:
http://oracledispatch.com/2016/10/01/zynga-inc-nasdaqznga-attracting-attention/
ZNGA: ADDS IT’S FIFTH EA EXECUTIVE THIS YEAR,THIS,WEEK,ZYNGA HIRES,(2),EA,EXECUTIVES
ZYNGA ANNOUNCES HIRING TWO (2), EA EXECUTIVES THIS WEEK
FRANK GIBEAU, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
GERARD GRIFFIN, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
DOUG SCOTT, ZYNGA’S CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
MATT BROMBERG, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER;
BERNARD KIM, PRESIDENT OF PUBLISHING.
ZYNGA ADDS FIFTH EX-ELECTRONIC ARTS EXECUTIVE, WITH ITS BLESSING
CHRISTOPHER PALMERI CHRISPALMERI
SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 — 4:05 PM EDT
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• GRIFFIN JOINS AS CFO, REPORTING TO FORMER EA EXEC GIBEAU
• FARMVILLE MAKER LOOKING FOR NEW HITS, MOBILE SUCCESS
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ZYNGA INC. HIRED GERARD GRIFFIN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE AT ELECTRONIC ARTS INC., TO BE ITS NEW CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, the fifth executive hired this year with ties to its game-making rival.
GRIFFIN FOLLOWS the trail of FRANK GIBEAU, AN EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF MOBILE AT EA who was named Zynga’s chief executive officer in March. In an unusual move, EA put out a statement supporting Griffin’s career change.
“From all of us at EA, we want to congratulate Ger Griffin on his new role and thank him for 10 years with us,” the company’s CFO Blake Jorgensen said in an e-mailed statement. “We wish him all the best.”
San Francisco-based Zynga was a pioneer in the business of making free-to-play, social games for Facebook Inc. and other platforms. The company has struggled since going public in 2011 to make the transition to mobile devices and come up with hits that top early successes such as FarmVille and Words with Friends. Co-founder Mark Pincus came back as CEO last year before handing the reins to Gibeau. He remains chairman.
EA, ONE OF THE LARGEST VIDEO-GAME MAKERS AND HOME TO FRANCHISES SUCH AS MADDEN NFL, UNDERWENT ITS OWN TURNAROUND A FEW YEARS AGO, paring back spending, focusing on digital revenue and releasing fewer major titles.
Other former EA executives who have joined Zynga this year include DOUG SCOTT, ZYNGA’S CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER; MATT BROMBERG, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER; AND BERNARD KIM, PRESIDENT OF PUBLISHING. While Scott didn’t come directly from EA, MANY OF THE EXECUTIVES OVERLAPPED WITH GIBEAU AT SOME POINT OVER HIS 25-YEAR CAREER AT THE COMPANY.
ACTIVISION BLIZZARD INC., THE LARGEST U.S. VIDEO-GAME PUBLISHER, ACQUIRED ZYNGA’S LARGEST COMPETITOR KING DIGITAL THIS YEAR FOR $5.9 BILLION.
Source:
www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-29/zynga-adds-fifth-ex-electronic-arts-executive-with-its-blessing
ZNGA: STRONG BUY, BUY SIGNAL, HOLD, (0,analysts,rated,the,stock,as,sell)
0 analysts rated the stock as sell.
PRICE TARGET ANALYSIS: ZYNGA, INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)
BY ED REED -
SEP 26, 2016
MANY ANALYSTS ARE PROVIDING THEIR ESTIMATED EARNINGS ANALYSIS FOR ZYNGA, INC. and for the CURRENT QUARTER 15 ANALYSTS HAVE PROJECTED THAT THE STOCK COULD GIVE AN AVERAGE EARNINGS ESTIMATE OF $0.01/SHARE. These analysts have also projected a Low ESTIMATE OF $0/SHARE AND A HIGH ESTIMATE OF $0.02/SHARE.
In case of Revenue Estimates, 13 analysts have provided their consensus Average Revenue Estimates for Zynga, Inc. as 187.23 Million. According to these analysts, the Low Revenue Estimate for Zynga, Inc. is 180 MILLION and the High Revenue Estimate is 195.2 MILLION. The company had Year Ago Sales of 175.98 MILLION.
Some buy side analysts are also providing their Analysis on Zynga, Inc., where 2 analysts have rated the stock as STRONG BUY, 3 analysts have given a BUY SIGNAL, 8 said it’s a HOLD, 3 reported it as Underperform and 0 analysts rated the stock as Sell. (THESE RECOMMENDATIONS ARE FOR THE CURRENT MONTH Only reported by Yahoo Finance.)
When it comes to the Analysis of a Stock, Price Target plays a vital role. 14 ANALYSTS REPORTED THAT THE PRICE TARGET FOR ZYNGA, INC. MIGHT TOUCH $5 HIGH while the Average Price Target and Low price Target is $3.18 and $2.5 respectively.
To analyze a stock, one should look for Upgrades and Downgrades of a stock. Zynga, Inc. got Initiated on 14-Jul-15 where investment firm Morgan Stanley Initiated the stock to Equal-Weight.
Zynga, Inc. closed its last trading session at $2.84 with the gain of 0%. The Market Capitalization of the company stands at 2.51 Billion. The Company has 52-week high of $3.02 and 52-week low of $1.78. The stock’s current distance from 20-Day Simple Moving Average (SMA20) is 1.56% where SMA50 and SMA200 are 1.9% and 13.18% respectively. The Company Touched its 52-Week High on Aug 4, 2016 and 52-Week Low on Feb 11, 2016.
The Relative Volume of the company is 0.46 and Average Volume (3 months) is 13.95 million. Zynga, Inc. P/E (price to earnings) ratio is 0 and Forward P/E ratio of 41.16.
The company shows its Return on Assets (ROA) value of -3.8%. The Return on Equity (ROE) value stands at -4.5%. While it’s Return on Investment (ROI) value is -7.7%.
While looking at the Stock’s Performance, Zynga, Inc. currently shows a Weekly Performance of -2.41%, where MONTHLY PERFORMANCE IS 8.4%, QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE IS 16.87%, 6 MONTHS PERFORMANCE IS 30.28% and YEARLY PERFORMANCE percentage is 19.33%. YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE VALUE (YTD PERF) VALUE IS 5.97%. The Stock currently has a Weekly Volatility of 2.86% and Monthly Volatility of 3.24%.
Source:
www.newsoracle.com/2016/09/26/price-target-analysis-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga/
ZNGA: SHAKES UP ITS MARKETING, WILLING TO MAKE,TOUGH,CALLS,A,BIG,NAME,IN,GAMING,AGAIN
• DOUG SCOTT, NEW HIRE FOR CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER (CMO)
• AN ADVISOR WITH YOUTUBE MUSIC
• THE CMO FOR BANDPAGE
THAT COMPANY GOT ACQUIRED BY GOOGLE
• PROVES IT WAS MARKETED SUFFICIENTLY WELL, GOOGLE'S HEARD OF IT
• spent ALMOST SIX YEARS WITH ELECTRONIC ARTS.
ZYNGA SHAKES UP ITS MARKETING WITH A SEASONED NEW HIRE
SEPTEMBER 27, 2016
BY STEVE ANDERSON
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Zynga hasn't exactly had the greatest run as a game maker, with frequent accusations of plagiarism and general chicanery tossed in its direction. When “Penny Arcade” portrays you as an angry dog named “Lord Zyngis,” it's seldom good, like having your company name stamped on the slug in a political cartoon. ZYNGA ISN'T TAKING THIS SORT OF THING LYING DOWN, though, and has RECENTLY BROUGHT SOME NEW—BUT RATHER SEASONED—BLOOD IN TO TAKE THE REINS AT MARKETING with a NEW HIRE FOR CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER (CMO), DOUG SCOTT.
SCOTT HAS OVER 20 YEARS EXPERIENCE IN MARKETING as far as VIDEO GAMES AND INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT go, having BUILT MARKETING STRATEGIES AND BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS.
He's also had a hand in the development side of things as well, including product design. Scott also spent time as AN ADVISOR WITH YOUTUBE MUSIC, which offered some marketing help toward musicians looking to make revenue with YouTube. Plus, he was THE CMO FOR BANDPAGE, and since THAT COMPANY GOT ACQUIRED BY GOOGLE, it PROVES IT WAS MARKETED SUFFICIENTLY WELL THAT GOOGLE'S HEARD OF IT. He even SPENT TIME AS VICE PRESIDENT FOR MARKETING AND REVENUE WITH JAPANESE MOBILE GAMING COMPANY DeNA, and even, ironically, spent ALMOST SIX YEARS WITH ELECTRONIC ARTS.
Scott steps into A POSITION THAT'S BEEN HOTLY CONTESTED OVER THE YEARS; he's replacing Jennifer Nuckles, who left Zynga for Doctor on Demand recently after serving as Zynga's CMO for a little over two years. Nuckles was part of a hiring spree staged by former CEO Don Mattrick, who hired Nuckles and several others to replace several hires made by other former CEO Mark Pincus, who came back after Mattrick left in 2015 before Pincus in turn hired another former EA executive in Frank Gibeau.
That's A LOT OF BOUNCING AROUND AT THE TOP, WHICH THANKFULLY HASN'T HAD A LOT OF IMPACT ON THE STOCK PRICE. The per-share value has been HOVERING AROUND THE $3 RANGE FOR MOST OF THE LAST THREE YEARS WITH ONLY MINOR FLUCTUATIONS, down from it’s long-ago HEIGHTS OF APPROACHING $15 A SHARE BACK IN 2012. On the one hand, it suggests that the company is frantically trying to find an executive mix that will actually do it some good and scrape its stock price off the floor, and it honestly has no idea who these people are so it's just trying things at random now. On the other hand, it suggests A COMPANY WILLING TO MAKE TOUGH CALLS THROUGHOUT THE BUSINESS and REPLACE THOSE WHO AREN'T WORKING.
The final outcome of Zynga's personnel moves won't be clear for some time, but IF IT'S FINALLY FOUND THE RIGHT MIX of people, it may well BE ABLE TO PUSH FOR SOME BIG NEW CHANGES to let it make a push toward BEING A BIG NAME IN GAMING AGAIN, and FOR THE RIGHT REASONS.
Source:
www.madmarketer.com/topics/news/articles/425529-zynga-shakes-up-its-marketing-with-seasoned-new.htm
ZNGA: WORTH WATCHING STOCK, IT IS A HOLD...
IT IS CURRENTLY TRADING 1.54% ABOVE ITS 50 DAY MOVING AVERAGE AND 12.73% ABOVE ITS 200 DAY MOVING AVERAGE
THE RSI INDICATOR VALUE OF 51.21, LEAD US TO BELIEVE THAT IT IS A HOLD for now.
PRESS RELEASES
WORTH WATCHING STOCKS: THE COCA-COLA COMPANY (KO), ZYNGA, INC. (ZNGA), OASIS PETROLEUM INC. (OAS)
ADAM PARK 53 MINS AGO
Zynga, Inc. (ZNGA) shares were down in last trading by -0.35% to $2.83. It EXPERIENCED HIGHER THAN AVERAGE VOLUME ON DAY. The stock decreased in value by almost -1.05% over the past week and grew 7.2% in the past month. IT IS CURRENTLY TRADING 1.54% ABOVE ITS 50 DAY MOVING AVERAGE AND 12.73% ABOVE ITS 200 DAY MOVING AVERAGE Following the recent decrease in price, the stock’s new closing price represents a -6.29% decrease in value from its one year high of $3.02.
THE RSI INDICATOR VALUE OF 51.21, LEAD US TO BELIEVE THAT IT IS A HOLD for now.
Zynga Inc. develops, markets, and operates social games as live services played on the Internet, social networking sites, and mobile platforms in the United States, North America, Asia, and the European Union.
It offers its online social games primarily under the Slots, Words With Friends, Zynga Poker, and FarmVille franchises. The company’s games are accessible on mobile platforms, Facebook, and other social networks, as well as Zynga.com.
It also provides advertising services to advertising agencies and brokers. The company was formerly known as Zynga Game Network Inc. and changed its name to Zynga Inc. in November 2010. Zynga Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
http://istreetwire.com/2016/09/27/worth-watching-stocks-the-coca-cola-company-ko-zynga-inc-znga-oasis-petroleum-inc-oas/
ZNGA: “HOLD”, AVERAGE ASSIGNED FROM SIXTEEN RATINGS FIRMS
ANALYSTS SET ZYNGA INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) PT AT $3.21
POSTED BY TERESA GRAHAM ON SEP 22ND, 2016
ZYNGA INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) HAS BEEN ASSIGNED AN AVERAGE RECOMMENDATION OF “HOLD” FROM THE SIXTEEN RATINGS FIRMS that are covering the firm. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating on the company.
THE AVERAGE 1-YEAR PRICE OBJECTIVE AMONG ANALYSTS THAT HAVE COVERED THE STOCK IN THE LAST YEAR IS $3.21.
Several analysts recently weighed in on ZNGA shares. Wedbush reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $4.25 price objective on shares of Zynga in a research note on Sunday, September 11th. JEFFERIES GROUP REAFFIRMED A “BUY” RATING ON SHARES of Zynga in a research note on Monday, July 11th. FBR & CO REAFFIRMED AN “OUTPERFORM” RATING AND ISSUED A $4.25 price objective on shares of Zynga in a research note on Tuesday, September 13th. Cowen and Company raised Zynga from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $3.50 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 3rd. Finally, TheStreet raised Zynga from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 27th.
In other Zynga news, VP Devang Shah sold 40,443 shares of Zynga stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.83, for a total value of $114,453.69. Following the completion of the sale, THE VICE PRESIDENT NOW DIRECTLY OWNS 77,799 SHARES IN THE COMPANY, VALUED AT $220,171.17. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 16.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
A NUMBER OF LARGE INVESTORS HAVE RECENTLY MADE CHANGES TO THEIR POSITIONS IN ZNGA.
MOORS & CABOT INC. boosted its stake in shares of Zynga by 0.4% in the second quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 124,050 shares of the company’s stock worth $307,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the period.
UTAH RETIREMENT SYSTEMS BOOSTED ITS STAKE in shares of Zynga by 0.6% in the second quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 132,388 shares of the company’s stock worth $329,000 after buying an additional 800 shares during the period.
PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM OF OHIO BOOSTED ITS STAKE in shares of Zynga by 0.7% in the second quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 143,765 shares of the company’s stock worth $358,000 after buying an additional 973 shares during the period.
PENSERRA CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC BOOSTED ITS STAKE in shares of Zynga by 3.5% in the second quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 49,442 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,000 after buying an additional 1,656 shares during the period.
Finally, PRINCIPAL FINANCIAL GROUP INC. BOOSTED ITS STAKE in shares of Zynga by 2.5% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 113,942 shares of the company’s stock worth $284,000 after buying an additional 2,793 shares during the period. 59.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) opened at 2.87 on Monday. Zynga has a 52-week low of $1.78 and a 52-week high of $3.02. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $2.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $2.58. The firm’s market capitalization is $2.53 billion.
Source:
www.thecerbatgem.com/2016/09/22/analysts-set-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga-pt-at-3-21.html
ZNGA: THE STOCK IS UP 6.59% IN THE LAST 1 WEEK, (WALL STREET ANALYSTS, THEY FORECASTED)...
NATURALMOTION ACQUISITION A SMART MOVE FOR ZNGA STOCK
THE STOCK IS UP 6.59% IN THE LAST 1 WEEK,
ITS REVENUES FROM MOBILE BOOKINGS GREW DOUBLE-DIGITS IN THE SECOND QUARTER.
BALANCE SHEET REMAINS STRONG, AND IT HAS AN AMAZING COLLECTION OF BRANDS, COMPELLING MARKET OPPORTUNITY, A GROWING MARKET CAP, AND AN ENGAGED AND PASSIONATE AUDIENCE.
(WALL STREET ANALYSTS) THEY FORECASTED THAT THE STOCK COULD TRADE AS MUCH AS $5.00 PER SHARE OVER THE NEXT 12 MONTHS, WHICH IS AN INCREASE OF 71.8%.
$3.32 FOR THE SHORT TERM
CSR RACING 2 COULD MAKE ZNGA STOCK SOAR
BY MARIVIC CABURAL, B.A.
PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 17, 2016
About the Author
ZYNGA INC: CSR RACING 2 COULD MAKE ZNGA STOCK SOAR
Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) stock was once riding fast and high, and was considered the king of social gaming. However, ZNGA stock lost its crown as it struggled to overcome the obstacle on its way toward continued growth and profitability.
Some investors are wondering if the company will eventually pull itself up and return to its former glory. ZNGA stock is currently trading around $2.90 per share. Is it time to buy Zynga stock to benefit from its potential upside in the future, or is it better to just stay from it because it is too risky?
CHALLENGES AND TURNAROUND STRATEGIES FOR ZYNGA STOCK
In July 2012, ZNGA stock suddenly suffered a massive decline when it reported a net loss of $22.8 million in the second quarter. Additionally, FACEBOOK INC (NASDAQ:FB) DECIDED TO AMEND ITS PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH ZYNGA. (SOURCE: “FORM 8-K,” U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, NOVEMBER 28, 2012.) THE CHANGE HURT THE SOCIAL GAMING COMPANY further: the user engagement and monetization of its games declined. Since then, the company failed to deliver quarterly profits and Zynga’s stock price fell to as low as $1.76 per share from its peak of $14.99 per share.
ZYNGA’S LEADERSHIP IMPLEMENTED TURNAROUND STRATEGIES, such as hiring a new CEO, reducing costs, and shifting its games to the mobile platform. The company hired Don Mattrick, the head of “Xbox One” at Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) as CEO. (Source: “Zynga Names Don Mattrick Chief Executive Officer,” Zynga Inc, July 1, 2013.)
During his short tenure at Zynga, Mattrick spearheaded THE ACQUISITION OF NATURALMOTION LIMITED FOR $527.0 MILLION TO BOOST THE COMPANY’S CREATIVE PIPELINE AND ACCELERATE ITS MOBILE GROWTH. NATURALMOTION IS A GAMING COMPANY BASED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM that is behind the CSR Racing and Clumsy Ninja franchises. Mattrick also started reducing the company’s global workforce by 15% and expanded its cost-savings plan. (SOURCE: “ZYNGA TO ACQUIRE LEADING MOBILE GAME DEVELOPER NATURALMOTION,” NATURALMOTION, JANUARY 30, 2014.)
Mattrick decided to leave the company in 2015, and he believed that it is already in a stronger position to pursue its growth opportunities. Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus took over again as CEO until the board appointed Frank Gibeau to assume the role in March 2016. Pincus serves as executive chair of the company.
ZYNGA STOCK 2Q RESULTS SHOWED IMPROVEMENT
Last month, Zynga stock released its second-quarter financial results, which showed that the company made a good progress in its turnaround efforts. THE COMPANY REPORTED REVENUE OF $182.0 MILLION, WHICH IS HIGHER THAN ITS GUIDANCE OF AROUND $170.0 MILLION TO $180.0 MILLION. Its generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) net loss was $4.0 million, or -$0.01 per share, which is better than its expected net loss of $20.0 million to $26.0 million, or -$0.02 to -$0.03 per share.
Zynga stock’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $12.0 million was also above its guidance while its GAAP OPERATING EXPENSES OF $132.0 MILLION DECLINED 15% QUARTER-OVER-QUARTER, DUE TO A 14% REDUCTION IN MARKETING EXPENSE.
Its total bookings were $175.0 million, which is above the high-end of its guidance. Its mobile bookings increased 19% to $137.0 million (78% of total overall bookings). Its advertising and other bookings increased 17% to $45.0 million year-over-year.
According to Zynga, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google (Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)) are now its two largest platforms for online game bookings. Zynga has approximately 61 million monthly active users in the second quarter.
ZNGA stock ended the quarter with $868.0 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities. Its total assets were $1.94 billion, and its total liabilities were $276.0 million, which means the company has a strong balance sheet. (Source: “Form 10-Q,” Zynga Inc, August 5, 2016.)
NATURALMOTION ACQUISITION A SMART MOVE FOR ZNGA STOCK
Zynga’s decision to purchase NaturalMotion was a smart move, given the fact that CSR Racing is a successful mobile game franchise with more than 190 million downloads.
The social gaming company released the game CSR Racing 2 on June 30, and it was well received, with more than 600,000 five-star ratings across “App Store” and “Google Play.” Users already raced 264 million miles in the mobile game, which was played in more than 200 countries and territories.
CSR Racing 2 is now the top free and top grossing mobile racing game. It is generating around $150,000.00 per day in the United States alone. It has 1.5 million daily active users in the country. (Source: “CSR Racing 2 usage and revenue results: Is NaturalMotion finally paying off for Zynga?,” SurveyMonkey, August 3, 2016.) Zynga is maintaining CSR Racing 2 with new supercars, tracks, and social features for fans.
NaturalMotion is working on action strategy game, Dawn of the Titans, which is expected to be released during the holiday season this year. According to Zynga, the soft-launch feedback on the game was positive, due to its high-fidelity graphics and combat gameplay. According to Zynga, its priority for the game is to increase its long-term engagement and social features.
THE BOTTOM LINE FOR ZNGA STOCK
THE TURNAROUND STRATEGY OF ZYNGA SEEMS TO BE WORKING; its shift to the MOBILE PLATFORM PARTICULARLY. Remember that ITS REVENUES FROM MOBILE BOOKINGS GREW DOUBLE-DIGITS IN THE SECOND QUARTER. THERE IS A BIG POSSIBILITY THAT THE COMPANY WILL BOUNCE BACK and become relevant again, based on the success of CSR Racing 2 and the POSITIVE FEEDBACK FOR THE UPCOMING DAWN OF THE TITANS.
Zynga stock would eventually become profitable if NaturalMotion continues to develop compelling games. The company’s CEO is focused on its turnaround by making sure that its studio is well-positioned to build high-quality and innovative games.
Despite Zynga’s struggles, its BALANCE SHEET REMAINS STRONG, AND IT HAS AN AMAZING COLLECTION OF BRANDS, COMPELLING MARKET OPPORTUNITY, A GROWING MARKET CAP, AND AN ENGAGED AND PASSIONATE AUDIENCE. Gibeau believes that the company has significant potential and growth opportunities, and it can create value for shareholders.
WALL STREET ANALYSTS have a consensus recommendation for investors to hold their position in ZNGA stock. THEY FORECASTED THAT THE STOCK COULD TRADE AS MUCH AS $5.00 PER SHARE OVER THE NEXT 12 MONTHS, WHICH IS AN INCREASE OF 71.8%. Their median estimate is $3.00 per share, which is an increase of three percent.
Source:
www.profitconfidential.com/stock/zynga-inc-csr-racing-2-make-znga-stock-soar/
ZYNGA (ZNGA) SHARES ARE UP 6.59%
BY: KURT BURNS|LAST UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 19, 2016
Zynga (ZNGA) : TRADERS ARE BULLISH ON ZYNGA (ZNGA) AS IT HAS OUTPERFORMED THE S&P 500 BY A WIDE MARGIN OF 11.24% IN THE PAST 4 WEEKS. The bullishness in the stock continues EVEN IN THE NEAR-TERM AS THE STOCK HAS RETURNED AN IMPRESSIVE 6.03%, RELATIVE TO THE S&P 500. The stock has continued its bullish performance both in the near-term and the medium-term, as THE STOCK IS UP 6.59% IN THE LAST 1 WEEK, and is up 8.99% in the past 4 weeks. Buying continues as the stock moves higher, suggesting a strong appetite for the stock.
The stock has recorded a 20-day Moving Average of 6.01% and the 50-Day Moving Average is 4.62%.The 200 Day SMA reached 16.26% Zynga, Inc. is up 18.29% in the last 3-month period. Year-to-Date the stock performance stands at 8.58%.
Zynga (ZNGA) : The consensus price target for Zynga (ZNGA) is $3.32 FOR THE SHORT TERM with a standard deviation of $0.83. The most optimist SECURITIES ANALYST AMONG THE 9 WHO MONITOR THE STOCK BELIEVES THAT THE STOCK CAN REACH $5...
Source:
http://www.thefoundersdaily.com/zynga-znga-shares-are-up-6-59/674473/
ZNGA: FRESH BUYING, $22.5 (DOLLARS) EPS ESTIMATE FOR ZYNGA INC., (9-14-2016)
RATING OF ‘A’ SIGNIFIES THE STOCK HAS HUGE GROWTH POTENTIAL TO BRING PROFITABLE RETURNS TO INVESTORS.
..THEY CAN OPT FOR FRESH BUYING IF THE SHARE RATING IS 1 OR 2...
ZYNGA INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) HAS SCORED 2.4 RATING. ZYNGA INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA)
EPS, Earnings per share is commonly considered to be the only most important variable in shaping a share’s price. It is a major element used to gauge the price-to-earnings ratio.
EPS ESTIMATE FOR ZYNGA INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) AT $22.5
SEPTEMBER 14, 2016 2:58 PM
ZACKS GROUP PURSUES A PROCESS OF GIVING GROWTH STYLE SCORES TO LISTED COMPANIES IN THE INDUSTRY. AS PER THE MECHANISM, IT HAS A POSITIVE SCORE ON ZYNGA INC.
(NASDAQ:ZNGA). This thorough STUDY SCRUTINIZES THE DIFFERENT FINANCIAL FACTORS AND REACHES THE GROWTH FORECASTS.
While performing this revision, the Balance Sheet, and other financial parameters play an influential role. ONCE THESE BASICS ARE STUDIED, A SCORE IS SET IN BETWEEN ‘A’ AND ‘F’. RATING OF ‘A’ SIGNIFIES THE STOCK HAS HUGE GROWTH POTENTIAL TO BRING PROFITABLE RETURNS TO INVESTORS.
Research group Zacks repeatedly conducts the market poll to put estimates of earnings and price targets. THE LATEST POLL RESULTS DISCLOSE THAT THE MEAN EPS PREDICTION FOR ZYNGA INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) STANDS AT $22.5. For the short-term, the price target is $3.316.
This figure was reached after getting recommendations of 9 brokerages. There are market experts who think the stock can perform well in the long-term, and thus has set positive target of $5. The conservative estimate is $2.5.
Earnings per share is commonly considered to be the only most important variable in shaping a share’s price. It is a major element used to gauge the price-to-earnings ratio.
An important part of EPS that’s often unnoticed is the principal that is vital to generate the earnings in the calculation. It is possible that two companies generate the same EPS, but what matters is it is achieved by investing what amount of capital?
There are several brokerages functional in the industry and all of them use different processes for preparing research report. Therefore, it results in a confusing scenario for shareholders to make an apt investment choice. In an effort to clear this slipup, ZACKS HAS INNOVATED A 1-5 SCALE, AS PER, WHICH STOCKHOLDERS CAN CONTINUE TO HOLD STOCKS IF THE SHARE HAS ‘3’ RATING.
THEY CAN OPT FOR FRESH BUYING IF THE SHARE RATING IS 1 OR 2 WHILE
liquidate if the rating is ‘4’ or ‘5’.
ZYNGA INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) HAS SCORED 2.4 RATING. ZYNGA INC. (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is likely to disclose its financial report on 2016-11-01. For the quarter ended on 2016-06-30, the firm posted EPS of $-0.03 and this quarter it is estimated at $-0.02.
Source:
theenterpriseleader.com/analyst-research/eps-estimate-for-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga-at-22-5/156406/
ZNGA: HEDGE FUNDS FANS OF GAMING STOCKS
THE SMART MONEY’S FAVORITE GAMING STOCKS...
THE KEY IS TO FOCUS ON THE SMALL-CAP PICKS OF THESE FUNDS, WHICH ARE USUALLY LESS FOLLOWED BY THE BROADER MARKET...
WE TRACK AROUND 750 HEDGE FUNDS AND INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS. Through extensive backtests, WE HAVE DETERMINED THAT IMITATING SOME OF THE STOCKS THAT THESE INVESTORS ARE COLLECTIVELY BULLISH ON, CAN HELP RETAIL INVESTORS
HEDGE FUNDS-NEWS-TECH
HEDGE FUNDS WERE FANS OF GAMING STOCKS LAST QUARTER
PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 13, 2016 AT 8:00 AM BY INSIDER MONKEY TEAM IN HEDGE FUNDS,NEWS,TECH
GAMING COMPANIES ARE SIMILAR TO MOVIE STUDIOS. Both industries depend heavily on core franchises to deliver the type of returns that investors expect. Both sectors also entertain hundreds of millions of people around the world. What separates gaming companies from movie studios, however, is that producing a computer/mobile game generally costs less than making a tent-pole movie and MAJOR GAMES CAN YIELD HIGHER MARGINS. Games can also go viral on little to no marketing spend, something that is rare in Hollywood.
Given those facts, let’s take a closer look at THE SMART MONEY’S FAVORITE GAMING STOCKS as of the end of the second quarter, which were Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI), Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA), Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO), ZYNGA Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA), and Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU).
At Insider Monkey, WE TRACK AROUND 750 HEDGE FUNDS AND INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS. Through extensive backtests, WE HAVE DETERMINED THAT IMITATING SOME OF THE STOCKS THAT THESE INVESTORS ARE COLLECTIVELY BULLISH ON, CAN HELP RETAIL INVESTORS GENERATE DOUBLE DIGITS OF ALPHA PER YEAR. THE KEY IS TO FOCUS ON THE SMALL-CAP PICKS OF THESE FUNDS, WHICH ARE USUALLY LESS FOLLOWED BY THE BROADER MARKET and allow for larger price inefficiencies.
... In late-June, the company introduced CSR Racing 2, and it plans to develop more mobile-focused games in the future. …WITH VIRTUAL REALITY AND AUGMENTED REALITY GAMES IN THEIR INFANCY, ZYNGA HAS ANOTHER CHANCE TO RECAPTURE SOME OF ITS MAGIC BY BEING AN INNOVATOR THROUGH THOSE PLATFORMS. 20 FUNDS THAT WE TRACK, UP BY THREE FUNDS QUARTER-OVER-QUARTER, WERE BETTING ON ZYNGA AS OF THE END OF JUNE…....
Source:
www.insidermonkey.com/blog/hedge-funds-were-fans-of-gaming-stocks-last-quarter-473827/
ZNGA: BULLISH WITH AN INCREASE, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016
NOTEWORTHY ANALYST EVALUATIONS OF STOCKS: ZYNGA INC (NASDAQ:ZNGA), Frontier Communications Corp (NASDAQ:FTR)
BY CHRISTIAN WHEELER -
SEPTEMBER 13, 2016
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ZYNGA INC (NASDAQ:ZNGA) REMAINED BULLISH WITH AN INCREASE +4.03% putting the price on the $2.84 per share in last trading session ended on 9/12/2016…
ZYNGA INC (NASDAQ:ZNGA) DETAILED ANALYST RECOMMENDATION
A number of Reuters analysts recently commented on the stock. Currently the company has earned ‘BUY’ from 4 equity analysts. 0 analysts hold ‘Sell’ rating for the stock. 8 analysts have suggested the company is a ‘HOLD’. ‘Underperform’ verdict was shared by 3 analyst and ‘OUTPERFORM’ recommendation was issued by 1 analyst. The company has an Average Rating of 2.62 based on analysts tracked by Thomson Reuters.
Source:
reviewfortune.com/2016/09/13/noteworthy-analyst-evaluations-of-stocks-zynga-inc-nasdaqznga-frontier-communications-corp-nasdaqftr/
ACTIVE MOVERS – ZYNGA, (NASDAQ:ZNGA), VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS, (NYSE:VZ), ALTRIA GROUP, (NYSE:MO)
SEP 13, 2016 ROBINSON CRUZ
NEWS BUZZ
ZYNGA INC (NASDAQ:ZNGA) TRADED 28,293,128 SHARES ON LAST TRADING DAY WITH CLOSING PRICE OF $2.84. COMPANY GROSS MARGIN STANDS AT 68.80% …
Source:
http://wallstrt24.com/active-movers-zynga-nasdaqznga-verizon-communications-nysevz-altria-group-nysemo/2416981/