Luxor Capital Group, led by Christian Leone, has increased its stake in Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA), a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows. The stake was raised to 39.86 million shares from 19.15 million shares the fund reported holding in its latest 13F filing, for the reporting period of March 31. The stake is passive by nature, and equates to 5.1% of the company’s class A common stock. Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is a developer of video games, headquartered in San Francisco, California.
New York-based hedge fund Luxor Capital has an estimated $3 billion in assets under management (AUM). Founded in 2002, the fund has a relatively balanced structure, with holdings in equity and fixed income investments throughout the world. Luxor Capital uses a value-based approach to choose stocks, and the investor has a penchant for distressed companies. As of March 31, Luxor Capital’s public equity portfolio had a value of $6.19 billion.
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Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is a developer of social games, with a market cap of $2.28 billion. The California-based company has developed online games, such as FarmVille, Zynga Casino, and Words With Friends. Shares of Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s stock have declined by 8.82% year-to-date (YTD), compared to robust gains of 26.91% for the industry.
Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) was able to narrow its net loss for the first quarter of 2015 to $46.50 million, versus $61.18 million in the same quarter of 2014. Net loss per share was $0.05, versus a loss of $0.07 per share in the year-ago quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $183.29 million, up from $168.02 million in the same quarter last year. Its bookings for the quarter increased to $167 million, compared to the same quarter of 2014. For the second quarter of 2015, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) expects its net loss to be in the range of $50 million to $54 million, and revenue to be in the range of $175 million to $190 million. Bookings are estimated to be in the range of $145 million to $160 million.
Recently, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) announced a $100 million cost reduction program, under which it plans to reduce its current workforce by about 18%. The company also intends to implement additional cost reduction measures as part of this plan. The company expects the workforce reduction to be complete in the fourth quarter of this year, generating about $45 million in annualized savings. The company plans to complete a reduction in centralized services costs and spending by the third quarter of 2016, which will generate an estimated annualized savings of about $55 million.
In May, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) released its first mobile action-strategy game, Empires & Allies, to global consumers. The modern military strategy game allows players to design their perfect army and deploy weapons of modern warfare in a never-ending battle to save the world.
Last month, Ellen F. Siminoff, a Director at Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA), sold 10,000 shares of the company. According to a new filing with the SEC, the shares were sold at $2.77 per share for an aggregate price of approximately $27,700.00. Following the sale, Siminoff owns 360,619 shares of Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA).
Ricky Sandler’s Eminence Capital is one of the largest shareholders of Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) among the investors we track. As of March 31, Eminence Capital held 64.21 million shares of the company. Another investor of Zynga is David Greenspan’s Slate Path Capital, which reported holding 26.14 million shares at the end of the first quarter.
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