Why Nintendo Stock Got Rocked Today
One pundit tracking the company thinks its current hot product won’t be as much of a success as some believe.
Many stock market players were avoiding pushing the on switch with Nintendo‘s (NTDOY) U.S.-listed equity on Wednesday.
An influential researcher pushed its recommendation down one peg, and the Japanese video game company’s stock saw a resultant decline. Nintendo’s American depositary receipts (ADRs) finished the day down by over 3%, in a session where the bellwether S&P 500 index slid by only 0.1%.
Perhaps records aren’t made to be broken
The company behind the move was Wedbush Securities, which is known for its coverage of tech stocks. Analyst Alicia Reese reduced her recommendation on Nintendo’s Japan-listed equity from outperform (read: buy) to neutral that morning, at a price target of 14,000 yen ($95.36) per share.
Image source: Getty Images.
Reese’s downward adjustment was due in no small part to lingering high expectations for the company’s recently released Switch 2 hybrid video game console, according to reports.
The product has been a hot seller, so much so that Nintendo had difficulties keeping up with demand in the early stages of the rollout (it was released to the market in early June). However, Reese pointed out that many estimates for unit sales look quite high; after all, they are well above actual sales for both the original Switch and an older product, the Wii.
Switching off?
Those latter two devices, Reese pointed out, happen to be the two top-selling consoles of all time. That’s a tough game to beat, and the pundit believes Switch 2 — which, by the way, costs a rich 50% more than its predecessor — won’t quite hit those high marks.
