Activision (ATVI) Scales 52-Week High: Should You Hold?

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) reached a new 52-week high of $39.99 on May 27, closing a bit lower at $39.34. Shares have been rising since May 5 when the company announced its first quarter 2016 results. In addition, the company made a couple of other important announcements, which increased investor’s optimism.

Activision unveiled the statistics from the beta version of its upcoming game, Overwatch. It appears that the title was quite well received by gamers (9.7 million in number) who played it for over 81 million hours in a short span of time. In addition, the company’s media division launched its eSports broadcast network which is a part of the Major League Gaming platform that was acquired by the company in Jan 2016. Such moves are important for Activision as it strives to position itself as a broad based media company.

These apart, the company has been benefiting from its relentless focus on broadening its franchise portfolio, innovation and initiatives to expand to new geographies. Most importantly, the acquisition of Candy Crush maker King Digital Entertainment is especially of significance for Activision as it is allowing the company to expand its presence in the lucrative mobile gaming business (which otherwise had been a sore point for the company).

As a result of these developments, the company’s shares have surged over 16% in the past month, in contrast to a gain of only 1.1% in the S&P 500 index over the same period. In the past 30 days, upward estimate revisions have also pushed up the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2016 by 0.6% to $1.70 per share.

Nonetheless, increasing competition from peers like Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) , Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO) and Glu Mobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU) can pose some challenges for the company.

Currently, Activision has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).