Playtika (NASDAQ:PLTK) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Wedbush

Wedbush upgraded shares of Playtika (NASDAQ:PLTK) to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

PLTK has been the topic of several other reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Playtika from $7.25 to $5.75 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Bank of America raised shares of Playtika from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $6.00 to $6.50 in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Playtika from $10.00 to $9.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $7.68.

Playtika Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of Playtika stock opened at $4.97 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $1.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.85. The company’s 50 day moving average is $4.89 and its 200 day moving average is $5.68. Playtika has a twelve month low of $3.97 and a twelve month high of $8.80.

Playtika (NASDAQ:PLTK) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by ($0.02). Playtika had a net margin of 5.37% and a negative return on equity of 149.09%. The business had revenue of $706.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $699.67 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.14 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Playtika will post 0.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Playtika Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 23rd will be issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.06%. Playtika’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 105.26%.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Holding Uk Ltd Playtika II sold 150,869 shares of Playtika stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.77, for a total transaction of $719,645.13. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 199,359,642 shares in the company, valued at $950,945,492.34. This trade represents a 0.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders have sold 739,922 shares of company stock valued at $3,548,194. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Playtika

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PLTK. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Playtika by 366.2% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,547,829 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,989,000 after buying an additional 1,215,843 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC grew its position in shares of Playtika by 536.3% in the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 1,354,552 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,003,000 after buying an additional 1,141,685 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of Playtika by 61.2% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,923,616 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,290,000 after buying an additional 1,109,594 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Playtika by 143.4% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 719,263 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,719,000 after buying an additional 423,738 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Playtika during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,402,000. Institutional investors own 11.94% of the company’s stock.

Playtika Company Profile

Playtika Holding Corp., together with its subsidiaries, develops mobile games in the United States, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia pacific, and internationally. The company owns a portfolio of casual and social casino-themed games. It distributes its games to the end customer through various web and mobile platforms and direct-to-consumer platforms.