3. Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 80
Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) is an American company that publishes interactive entertainment content and services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI)’s sale to Microsoft is pending. Warren Buffett acquired a position in Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) in Q4 2021, and in the second quarter of 2022, he raised his stake by 7%. The billionaire owned 68.40 million shares of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) in Q2, worth $5.3 billion, representing 1.77% of the total securities.
On August 4, Deutsche Bank analyst Benjamin Soff maintained a Hold rating on Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) and lowered the price target on the stock to $84 from $95. The analyst has a “balanced view of the probability” of Microsoft’s pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) to receive regulatory authorization.
According to Insider Monkey’s data, 80 hedge funds were long Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) at the end of Q1 2022, up from 70 funds in the preceding quarter. Matthew Halbower’s Pentwater Capital Management is a notable stakeholder of the company, with 7.32 million shares worth $586.40 million.
Here is what FPA U.S. Core Equity Fund has to say about Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) in its Q1 2022 investor letter:
“One of the Fund’s biggest winners in the first quarter was Activision Blizzard. On January 18, 2022 Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) agreed to purchase ATVI for $95.00 per share in an all-cash transaction. The Fund has been invested in ATVI since the second quarter of 2018.
The investment thesis was threefold. First, the greater than $200 billion gaming industry is the largest and fastest growing form of entertainment in the world. More than three billion people play games currently and the population of global gamers is expected to grow faster than global population growth this decade.14 Second, ATVI has some of the best intellectual property in the gaming industry including Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Call of Duty and Candy Crush in addition to global eSports activities through Major League Gaming. Third, ATVI has had a pristine balance sheet with net cash over the past four years, generated robust free cash flow and traded at an undemanding valuation.
ATVI closed the quarter at $80.11—a nearly 16% discount to the acquisition price. Assuming it takes about a year for the deal to close, a 18.6% return seems to be good upside relative to the risk of a deal not closing due to anti -trust concerns. If the transaction closes it would make Microsoft the third-largest company in gaming by revenue behind Tencent and Sony. There is plenty of competition from these larger players as well as smaller competitors such as EA, Take-Two Interactive, Roblox and Epic Games’ Fortnite. The Fund remains invested in ATVI given the significant discount, but should the discount narrow in the coming quarters the Fund could reduce or eliminate the position.”
