"As a conservative long-term oriented investor I tend to keep individual position sizes to no more than 5% of the overall portfolio; however in the case of Activision Blizzard (ATVI), I'm building a more concentrated position that I expect to pay off in the next two to three years," says Asif Suria.

In his The SINLetter advisory, he offers 10 reasons why he believes the stock is an attractive core long-term investment. He explains, "My goal is to eventually build this position until it represents 20% of my personal portfolio. Here are 10 reasons behind this decision.

1) Activision released the highly anticipated game Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2 and racked up $310 million in sales from the United States and United Kingdom over a 24 hour period. With Christmas right around the corner, the final sales numbers for this edition of Call of Duty are going to be much bigger.

Continue reading Activision Blizzard (ATVI): 10 reasons to buy

Activision Blizzard (ATVI): 10 reasons to buy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I was looking around today for a stock to buy. I came up empty-handed. One of my ideas was Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI). I was intrigued this week by reports that said the company wants to have the launch to end all launches for the next Call of Duty title. Quite frankly, I think there's a chance the company will succeed with this. So, naturally, my thoughts turned to shares of Activision Blizzard as a possible buy candidate. Although I already own the stock in a longer-term, taxed portfolio, I wanted a trade for my Roth IRA.

Well, I couldn't buy the company. It's up today (3% at the time of this writing), and I do not want to buy any stock when it's up. Not now, at any rate. The market has come too far too fast, in my opinion, and I want to trade carefully. But, while looking at Activision Blizzard, I came across this article from Ben Kuchera over at Ars Technica. He discusses comments made by the publisher's CEO, Bobby Kotick, on Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) and its PlayStation platforms.

Continue reading Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick needs to tone down rhetoric

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick needs to tone down rhetoric originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

GameStop (NYSE: GME) is probably the best friend to gamers who fall somewhere in between the casual and hardcore demographic. That's because CEO Dan DeMatteo has been quoted in reports as being very desirous of a price cut for the Sony (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation 3. If I read between the lines a bit, I get the feeling as if he almost wants to demand that Sony do something about its high-priced machine.

Thing is, though, he isn't in Sony's corporate shoes. Cutting the price of the PlayStation 3 is an event that I think is sure to come to pass in the next few months, but it's going to be very difficult on the company's bottom line.

Continue reading GameStop wants Sony to play ball -- will Sony do it?

GameStop wants Sony to play ball -- will Sony do it? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Boy, I'll tell you, owning Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) has been tough lately. I love the company's prospects. It's got great franchises: Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, World of Warcraft. It's doing better than rivals Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) and THQ (NASDAQ: THQI). But the stock has been hitting a lot of technical resistance. Not only that, but CEO Bobby Kotick recently sold a bunch of shares (over a million, actually).

Well, in terms of that insider sale, we can all relax. Basically, Kotick was exercising options that were set to expire relatively soon, says Barron's. That accounted for one million shares. Now, he did also sell over 240,000 shares that were stored in a trust. The mitigating factor here is that Kotick operates under restrictions as to when he can and cannot sell stock. So, in an overall sense, we can give him a pass on this one. Silicon Alley Insider supports this sentiment, and talks about another insider's sale in similar terms.

Continue reading Activision Blizzard: Great company, but is it heading lower short-term?

Activision Blizzard: Great company, but is it heading lower short-term? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), which competes with Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) and THQ (NASDAQ: THQI), did all right in the third quarter. The publisher reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.07. That was two cents better than what analysts were counting on. As a shareholder of the company, I was pleased to see that. I was also pleased that a $1 billion stock buyback was announced.

However, I wasn't so pleased by the cautious tone of CEO Bobby Kotick. You can tell he thinks the recession may put a damper on all the rockin' fun that Activision Blizzard is having with its Guitar Hero franchise. Indeed, the market is pricing in the risk of owning Activision Blizzard shares these days.

Before, I was used to what seemed like a constant capital appreciation of my position. Now, that feeling is gone, as the stock has been struggling. The stock, in fact, was near a 52-week low at the close of trading on Wednesday. That doesn't feel right, does it? Activision Blizzard should still sell a lot of software for the Sony (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation 3, the Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox 360, and the Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY) Wii platforms. Not only is the new Guitar Hero making waves, but a fresh version of Call of Duty is forthcoming.

Continue reading Activision Blizzard beats in Q3 -- time to buy

Activision Blizzard beats in Q3 -- time to buy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.