THQ’s share price dropped to 58 cents per share last night before climbing back to 76 cents at closing. While we know that these share price values spell danger for the struggling publisher, where does it put the company in relation to its competitors?
We reported yesterday that THQ is facing de-listing from the NASDAQ stock market due to its failure to meet one of the listing requirements to keep its share value at or above $US1. THQ’s share price has hovered in the 60-70 cent region for more than 30 days, which means it no longer meet’s NASDAQ’s minimum requirements.
THQ currently has a share volume of 4,546,564 and 68,382,000 shares outstanding (shares outstanding are defined by the NASDAQ as publicly-held shares). Each share is valued at $US0.76. In comparison, EA has a share volume of 25,830,149 with 331,425,000 shares outstanding. Each share is valued at $19.56. Take Two has 3,012,387 shares with 86,660,000 shares outstanding. Each share is valued at $15.72.
The chart below shows THQ’s stock chart over the past 12 months.
Chuloopa
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 10:56 AMThey certainly have plumeted.
That being said, so had QANTAS’s for quite some time. Doing a couple of assignments for uni i discovered they are worth only a small fraction of what they once were, yet they still chug along (for how much longer, who knows).
Personally i want to see THQ continue on. What they really need to do is sack a shit load of people, reposition themselves and stop making shovelware and focus more on their A grade games and support themselves with a whole heap more of DL only titles.
Of course, it would take a lot more than that, but you know, need to start somewhere
SenorFreebie
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 11:46 AMThey already sacked a huge amount of people and closed many of their best studios.
Tom
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 10:56 AMSo I don’t know enough about finance – can I assume once you drop off the NASDAQ it’s game over man, game over?
Whatever it means, that graph does not paint a pretty picture at all. What happened early Dec that caused such a massive sell off?
Tracey Lien
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 11:00 AMIf you drop off the NASDAQ it’s not *completely* game over… at least, not technically. You can trade in different stock markets and you can still exist as a company and trade shares etc. However the NASDAQ provides regulation and transparency so that investors know what they’re getting themselves into. They can trust that if a company is listed on the NASDAQ that the share price listed is accurate, that if anything goes wrong they are notified of it. NASDAQ has strict requirements that companies must follow — it is a highly regarded stock market.
Once a company falls off the NASDAQ, it can trade on “pink sheets” (which I’ve explained in the article I linked), but investors would lose confidence in the business because the market isn’t as well regulated, there’s less transparency, and the share prices are mostly speculated. It’s not a place you want to be.
Tom
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 11:08 AMCheers for that Tracey. No doubt dropping of the NASDAQ will make more investors sell their stock too. It’s just not looking good.
Chuloopa
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 11:09 AMhence why they need to go into critical mode now and make BIG changes, starting with their executives
Barry
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 12:59 PMTracey…how did you get so smart?
Tracey Lien
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 1:07 PMFast learner. ;)
RocK_M
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 8:48 PMIt’s a commonly known fact Pepsi Max increases brain power! xD
Phill // Bset
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 9:05 PMI imagine she goes super saiyan while reading books or something.
Tracey Lien
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 11:37 PMI do not drink softdrink.
James
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 7:20 PMWell, there is one simple change they could make to prop up their share price: perform a reverse share split (e.g. for every two shares you own, you get one new share valued at twice the old amount). After all, the way you divide up the company’s value is arbitrary.
The main problem with that is that people might see it as a sign that they don’t think the share price will recover, and lead to an even larger plunge.
NotoriousR
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 10:57 AMYou should put up a 5 year view. From $30 -> 70ish cents. And the CEO wasn’t even sacked as it continued to plummet. Good effort, THQ!
Chuloopa
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 11:09 AMamazing just how deeply heads can get buried in sand, aint it?
Gabe McGrath
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 11:21 AM@Tracey
So I’m guessing that early March, mid July and late December coincided with BAD financial announcements? (ie big volume sold, share drops)
Tracey Lien
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 11:27 AMWhat those dates seem to indicate is number of shares created. The more shares you have, the less they’re worth.
4len
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 11:33 AMWould the share creation have a useful purpose? E.g, lower price but more investment for potential turn around? I don’t know much about Shares etc
Tracey Lien
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 12:34 PMWhile I can’t speak specifically about THQ, shares can sometimes be given to people as payment. So instead of paying someone a bonus or similar, they can give that person 1000 shares in the company. Sometimes it can be better to have a stake in the company than to just get paid by them, which is why a lot of people accept the shares.
LINK
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 12:47 PMdepending on what type of share creation it was. it may have been a eg 1 for every 2 shares resulting in a more liquid share price meaning it can be traded easier. if it was an issue meaning that they offered more for sale it has MANY purposes some include: financing share buyback from dissident shareholders, financing takeovers of other companies with cash raised from shares, to fund new projects etc. MANY MANY uses. my favourite is the “poison pill” where if a hostile takeover is attempted once a certain level of shares acquired by the hostile company occurs a clause is activated meaning that all existing shareholders excluding the hostile company have an option to purchase new issue shares at a significantly discounted rate. this creates a situation where it would be to expensive for the hostile company to takeover the company. hostile companies will therefore know this and not attempt a takeover. such a great use lol =P
Bob
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 12:39 PMThe left side of the graph was when I bought shares, the right side of the graph is where I am now. :(
Gopspaceranger
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 2:25 PMI think they should reopen Blue Tongue and make that He-Man game that they brought the license for.
N0NEoftheAB0VE
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 12:01 AMDo you mean to tell me that someone is sitting on a licence for a He Man game and is doing NOTHING with it!!! :rage: