Reacting to an upbeat assessment of the videogame sector by analyst Tony Gikas of U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, publishers' stocks rose on Wall Street -- including Electronic Arts, which reached an all-time high.
Gikas raised price targets for EA, Activision, and THQ, and he raised revenue and earnings estimates for EA, THQ and Take-Two. As a result, Electronic Arts closed the day up 4.8 percent, at $76.01, an all-time high for EA. THQ, Activision and Take-Two were up between 1-2%. Gikas cited reasons for being bullish about these companies: -EA: He likes the company's dominant market share and its indications of strong sales. -THQ: He felt there was potential for improvement from sales of "Finding Nemo"-based games. -Take-Two: Likes its strong sales figures and growth prospects. -Activision: felt his earlier price target on Activision was "likely conservative." Gikas expects software sales growth for the game industry of 12 percent per year in 2003 and 2004, and said he expects further hardware price cuts.
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