Ubisoft’s stock plummeted 12% in the past five days following the company’s most recent earnings reports that revealed it had exceeded sales targets for its first financial quarter of the year.
A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
Yahoo! Finance reports that the Ubisoft stock fell 12.42% in the last five days following Ubisoft’s first quarter report on July 18th. In fact, the stock is down 14.73% for the year so far. If you go back an entire year, the stock is down 31.53%.
If you go back 5 years, the stock is down 74.73%.
Ubisoft stock price over the past 5 days.
The big dip, seen in the chart above, came in the wake of Ubisoft reporting that its net bookings hit €290.0 million or $315.76 million. This exceeded the company’s prediction €275.0 million or $299 million.
Ubisoft Co-Founder and CEO Yves Guillemot touted the net bookings saying, “In a selective market, we delivered a solid start to the year with net bookings above target, reaffirming that we are on the right track. The quarter notably saw the launch of XDefiant, that is off to an encouraging start as we continue to grow the audience at a steady pace and plan a quarterly roadmap of content that will allow us to firmly establish the game over time.”
He continued, “We also held Ubisoft Forward, that is always a key event for our teams and players, during which we showcased content that is very much aligned with our strategic focus on our two key verticals, Open World Adventures and GaaS-native experiences. The gameplay we presented for our two highly anticipated upcoming premium titles, Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, was not only praised by players and critics alike but also highlighted the cutting-edge capabilities of our game engines. We also presented a strong pipeline of content that will continue feeding our Live titles.”
A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft
Guillemot added, “As we progress through FY25, all our efforts are focused on successfully launching our promising new releases and positioning them as long-lasting value drivers for Ubisoft while continuing the transformation of our organization.”
He concluded, “We are excited about the future and confident in the sustained progress of our turnaround throughout the year.”
A screenshot from XDefiant (2023), Ubisoft
Despite the net bookings exceeding Ubisoft’s internal predictions, investors and analysts were expecting even better results from the company.
Following the company’s fourth quarter earnings report earlier this year, Bloomberg’s Daniel Zuidijk claimed that analysts were expecting “an average estimate of €376 million” for the quarter. That’s about $408.7 million. That means the net bookings and sales were 22% lower than what analysts initially expected.
The company noted that it expects net bookings to bring around €500 million or $544.5 million for the second quarter. It’s probably safe to assume that analysts were expecting higher sales numbers given Star Wars Outlaws releases in August during the company’s second quarter.
A screenshot from Rainbow Six Mobile (TBD), Ubisoft
Another factor that might have resulted in such a significant decline in the stock price following the earnings report is that Ubisoft delayed the release of Rainbow Six Mobile and The Division Resurgence.
The company explained, “Rainbow Six® Mobile and The Division® Resurgence are no longer expected in FY25 as the teams are taking the necessary time to ensure that these experiences deliver on expectations with optimized KPIs in the context of a demanding yet very large market.”
A screenshot from The Division® Resurgence (TBD), Ubisoft
What do you make of Ubisoft’s stock plummetting?
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