The torture for Zynga’s (NASDAQ:ZNGA) shareholders continued again today, with the stock down a grueling 21% to $2.21. Back in March, it was trading at nearly $15.
Zynga announced its preliminary results for the third quarter, and they look absolutely horrid. The company expects a loss of 12 cents to 14 cents per share. Bookings are also forecast to come to $1.085 billion to $1.1 billion, which is off from the prior estimate of $1.15 billion to $1.225 billion.
Yes, Zynga had no choice but to take a write-down for its disastrous $180 million deal for OMGPOP (which is the developer of the game Draw Something). The charge will range from $85 million to $95 million.
At the same time, Zynga is still suffering from deterioration in its core games, such as FarmVille and CityVille. Oh, and the company cannot seem to find ways to get traction with mobile games.
As a result, Wall Street analysts have reduced their price targets on Zynga’s stock. In fact, Evercore Partners has dropped its target from $2 to $1.70.
Analysts are also adjusting their estimates for Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), which gets 14% of its revenues from Zynga. For example, JPMorgan thinks payment revenues will plunge 28% for the third quarter.
So far in today’s trading, FB shares are off by 2.2% to $21.46.
Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPOPlaybook, a site dedicated to the hottest news and rumors about initial public offerings. He is also the author of “How to Create the Next Facebook.” Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
A long-time follower of the IPO scene, back in 1999 Tom started one of the first sites in the space called WebIPO. It was a place where investors got research as well as access to deals for the dot-com boom. Tom also wrote the top-selling book, Investing in IPOs. In it, he covers all the aspects of analyzing an IPO, such as reading the prospectus, detecting the risk factors and understanding some of the arcane regulations. But don’t worry — if that process is too intimidating for you, thankfully Tom will do the legwork for you right here in the IPO Playbook blog.
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