Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) shares are seeing a drop in short interest during the month of July. The short interest as on July 15th dropped 47,219,300 shares, a decline of 6.1% from June 30th. On the basis of average trading volume of 13,432,259 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.5 days.
Other recent developments
In July, there was large-option trading exercised on the stock as investors purchased a total of 13,561 put options on the company, which is a rise of 406% compared to the typical volume of 2,680 put options.
In separate news, CEO Donald Mattrick sold 2,145,315 shares of Class A Common Stock in the open market transaction, a few weeks back, at an average weighted price of $3.02 per share. After dropping some stock holdings, Mattrick now owns 1,901,113 shares worth approximately $5,741,361, according to a filing with the SEC.
Hedge Funds have also been active on Zynga stock this quarter with Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global, acquiring 28.4 million shares, with a value of $122.3 million. David Stemerman lead Hedge fund purchased 18.3 million shares, worth $78.7 million, totalling to 3.48% of the hedge fund portfolio.
Zynga expected to post in-line 2Q
Zynga has been subjected to a number of analyst ratings in recent months. Piper Jaffray analysts reduced the price target on the shares from $5.00 to $4.50, in a research note to the investors on Thursday, May 22nd. Benchmark Co analyst increased their price target on the shares from $3.46 to $3.52, in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Barclay’s analysts raised their price target from $4.50 to $5.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 24th and assigned Equal Weight rating to the stock. Zynga has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $4.53.
The social gaming company is set to post its second-quarter results on Thursday, August 7, 2014 after the market close. Michael Oslon of Piper Jaffray is estimating that the company will post the results in-line to the expectations. The analyst is projecting the revenue to be $190.96 million for the June quarter.
According to the analyst, the most played titles of Zynga are in the top 200 category. Ranking wise, also, the company has gained in the-second quarter, which brings good news for the company. FarmVille 2 will be a significant contributor to the second-quarter result, believe Oslon.
