Goldman Sachs and UBS both stuck with their buy ratings on Take-Two Interactive this week, but the two brokerages pulled their price targets in opposite directions after the video game publisher’s latest quarterly report card landed on Monday.
Goldman lifted its target to $290 from $285 on Tuesday, while UBS trimmed its own to $295 from $300 the same day. The Swiss bank pointed to softer net bookings — including the trajectory of the NBA business — and lower estimates as the reason for its cut, according to Reuters.
A Demand Signal, Not a Sales Tally
At the center of the story is Grand Theft Auto VI. Take-Two said preorders for the title are running ahead of any historical benchmark for the franchise, a claim disclosed in its quarterly 10-Q filing. The company was careful to frame the figure as initial preorder demand rather than completed sales of the game.
Chief executive Strauss Zelnick described the preorder level as unprecedented and suggested the trend would continue, GamesRadar reported on Tuesday. Take-Two reaffirmed a release date of November 19, 2026, a date that appears both in the earnings release and in the quarterly filing containing the preorder commentary.
Bookings Retreat, Loss Persists
For the second quarter of fiscal 2027, the quarter ended September 30, Take-Two booked $1.60 billion in net bookings — an 18% decline year over year. The GAAP net loss came in at $54.0 million. The results were also filed on Form 8-K.
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Management held firm on its full-year outlook, projecting net bookings of $8.0 billion to $8.2 billion for fiscal 2027. For the third quarter, the company guided to $3.35 billion to $3.50 billion. Reuters noted that the third-quarter range fell short of the average analyst estimate.
Where the Estimates Diverge
UBS now models fiscal 2027 net bookings of $8.7 billion and fiscal 2028 net bookings of $9.1 billion, both revised downward.
Press coverage framed the post-earnings share recovery around the reaffirmed annual guidance and the strength of GTA VI preorders, setting that against the bookings outlook that missed expectations.
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