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If You Invested $1000 in Activision Blizzard, Inc 10 Years Ago, This Is How Much You'd Have Now

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How much a stock's price changes over time is important for most investors, since price performance can both impact your investment portfolio and help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

The fear of missing out, or FOMO, also plays a factor in investing, especially with particular tech giants, as well as popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Activision Blizzard, Inc ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to ATVI for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Activision Blizzard, Inc's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Activision Blizzard, Inc's main business drivers.

Activision Blizzard, Inc. is a leading developer and publisher of console, online and mobile games. The company’s Call of Duty is one of the most popular gaming franchises globally. Its Overwatch League can be considered a pioneer of the esports concept.

Activision Blizzard benefited from the shift to digital download format. The company’s policy of updating games all the year round increased revenue visibility and stability.

Moreover, the acquisition of King Digital in 2016 fortified Activision’s footprint in the mobile genre.

Activision reported revenues of $8.09 billion in 2020. International revenues accounted for 45.2% of revenues.

The Santa Monica, CA-based company operates under three major segments and incorporates studio, media networks and distribution businesses under the “Others” segment.

Activision creates and publishes games for consoles, desktops, mobile and tablet. Franchises under this segment include Call of Duty, Crash and Spyro. The segment generated revenues of $3.94 billion and accounted for 49.2% of 2020 revenues.

Blizzard publishes games particularly for the PC format. It also maintains a proprietary online gaming service, Blizzard Battle.net, which facilitates digital distribution of Blizzard content and selected Activision content, online social connectivity, and the creation of user-generated content. The Overwatch League comes under this segment. The segment generated revenues of $1.91 billion and accounted for 23.8% of revenues.

King operates as an independent unit. The segment generated revenues of $2.16 billion and accounted for 27% of revenues.

The Other division includesActivision Blizzard Studios that makes original film and television content based on the company’s huge IP library.The segment also consists Activision Blizzard Distribution business.

Activision faces stiff competition from the likes of Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Zynga and Tencent in the video gaming space.

Bottom Line

Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio requires research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Activision Blizzard, Inc ten years ago, you're likely feeling pretty good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in October 2011 would be worth $5,987.59, or a gain of 498.76%, as of October 20, 2021, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 273.56% and gold's return of 4.87% over the same time frame.

Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for ATVI.

Activision’s top line is expected to benefit from an expanding user base of Call of Duty (COD), Hearthstone, World of Warcraft (WoW) and King’s franchises. This is expected to boost in-games spending, thereby driving net bookings and top-line growth in the near term. Additionally, the success of WoW: Shadowlands, which has become the fastest-selling PC game, is a key catalyst. Further, growing popularity of COD Mobile and e-sports initiatives are positives. Moreover, the upcoming launch of Diablo II: Resurrected is expected to boost top-line growth. Notably, shares of Activision have outperformed the industry in the year to date period. However, intensifying competition from the likes of Electronic Arts, Take Two Interactive, Zynga and Nintendo is a headwind for the company.

Shares have gained 5.68% over the past four weeks and there have been 4 higher earnings estimate revisions for fiscal 2021 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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