Diamonds and Dogs

8/3/18

Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) taking a bow. Take-Two is jumping 10% to a new high following earnings. The video game company actually missed estimates as sales fell 17.2% year over year to $288.33 million. But investors focused on guidance with better-than-expected recurrent consumer spending on Grand Theft Auto Online and NBA 2K18, as well as robust ongoing demand for Grand Theft Auto V, which is now approaching 100 million units sold-in to date. Take-Two, meanwhile, is launching "Red Dead Redemption 2" in late October—with other important games also coming later this year.

Symantec (SYMC) taking a hit. The anti-virus software maker is down 10% to a new 52 week low following earnings. Symantec actually beat estimates by a penny as sales rose 3.3% year over year to $1.17 billion, but then lowered guidance for the current quarter. Management explained that a newfound focus on long-term contracts has led to more time-consuming deal talks, which is pushing some expected deal closings into future reporting periods. At least eight analyst firms reacted to this report with lower price targets.