Take-Two Shares Back in $7 Range

Grand Theft Auto franchise game maker Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ:TTWO) shares are back in the $7 range following a 30% one day drop in share price.  The company said it likely won't be profitable in the new fiscal year as analysts had anticipated.

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME
Take-Two has given a string of disappointing forecasts as the company suffers from broad retail weakness and the lack of a new release in its "Grand Theft Auto" series. The company also has postponed its "BioShock 2" game until next year. The company blamed the latest weakness on its baseball games.

The analysts covering Take-Two killed the stock, here's the recap from Barron's Eric Savitz:

Andrey Gluknov, Brean Murray: To Hold from Buy. He notes that since the company’s contract with Major League Baseball runs until 2013 and will be an ongoing drag, “it no longer appears the company can be profitable” in years without new versions of Grand Theft Auto.

Todd Mitchell, Kaufman Bros.: To Sell from Buy; target to $7, from $14. “Management’s failure to execute both in terms of protecting itself from downside this quarter and failing to achieve profitability next year is indicative of broader problems at the company with regards to accountability which we thought had gone away, but apparently have not.”

Doug Creutz, Cowen: Downgrade to Neutral from Outperform.

Anthony Gikas, Piper: Downgrade to Neutral from Overweight; target to $10, from $15.

Eric Handler, MKM Partners: To Neutral, from Buy. “We no longer believe the company’s game pipeline is sufficient to drive positive earnings without a mega-hit on the level of a GTA type game.”

Jess Lubert, Wells Fargo: To Market Perform, from Overweight.

Atul Bagga, ThinkEquity: To Hold from Buy.

SOURCE: http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2009/12/04/take-two-in-29-plunge-on-weak-results-drags-down-other-game-stocks-analysts-abandon-ship/