Zynga witnessed a sharp rise in short interest for the month of March. As of March 31st, short interest for the social game maker totaled 73,283,319 shares, which is an increase of 7.9% from the March 13th total of 67,908,762 shares. Around 9.6% of the floating shares of Zynga are short sold.
A busy last week for Zynga
Zynga shares have seen a few up and downs over the last week. The stock declined sharply on Thursday following the big management change announced by the company. On Friday, the stock recovered a bit, gaining 4.62%. On Thursday, the social game maker announced the exit of the current CEO Don Mattrick, who will be replaced by Mark Pincus. Announcing his comeback, Pincus said, “I am returning to the company that I love in order to accelerate innovation in the most popular games.” Commenting on the strategy that he will be focusing on as the new CEO, Pincus touched upon the idea of partnering with industry leaders to enhance the overall gaming experience for the players.
Zynga has a 52-week low of $2.20 and a 52-week high of $4.66. On Tuesday, the stock closed down 1.21% at $2.44, while year to date the shares are down over 10%.
Analysts ratings
A number of research firms have come out with a rating on Zynga in the last few months. In a research note on Sunday, analysts at BTIG Research reiterated their Hold rating on the game maker. Separately, analysts at Vetr, in a research note on April 8th, lowered their rating on the stock from Buy to Hold, and assigned a $2.97 price target. Analysts at Zacks lowered their rating on Zynga from Outperform to Neutral, and offered a price target of $2.70 in a February 19th research note. In a February 13th report, Piper Jaffray analysts assigned a Neutral rating to the game maker with a price target of $2.50. Presently, Zynga has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $3.50.
In separate news, Zynga VP Devang Shah sold 50,000 shares of the company, in an open market transaction dated April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.88, amounting to $144,000, according to a filing with the SEC.
