It looks as if KBC Securities of Japan isn't feeling all that confident that Nintendo can continue down the path of dominance much longer. As a result, they've decided to downgrade Nintendo's target price by a whopping 30-percent, and change its investment rating from "buy" to "hold."
"Sales in the U.S. and Europe are peaking after ``amazing growth'' this fiscal year, Kamide wrote in the report. ``We believe that it is reasonable to expect a tougher trading environment.''
However, the gloom and doom machine doesn't stop there. Greenpeace has taken aim at Nintendo once more, citing them as the worst of the worst environmental offenders, of the top electronic manufacturers that made the survey:
“Nintendo remains the odd one out of the 18 companies in the Guide, without any public timelines to eliminate the worst toxic chemicals or a global recycling policy for the millions of products it sells every year. If Nintendo has better policies why not make them public like the other 17 companies in the Guide?"
As far as the stocks are concerned, the word "premature" comes to mind. Last time we checked, the Wii and DS were still selling, games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl were tearing up the charts, and Nintendo is still managing to make money hand over fist as a result. Word to KBC: Sony and Microsoft may be picking up steam, but Nintendo is still enjoying the lead. You might want to hold off on that downgrade for a bit longer.
As for Greenpeace, I'd counter that charge about Nintendo not having a solid recycling program in place for outdated products with this: Have you not noticed that people are still playing NES games these days? When you design quality hardware that can go the distance, and games that fall under the description of timeless, words like recycling have little meaning.
I know their glaring lack of a decent online plan is still a hurdle that Nintendo needs to cross, but other than that, they are doing quite well for themselves. Save the clouds for a real rainy day. The sun is still beaming down on them right now.
[Thanks, Jonathan]
Contest:
9:46 AM on 03.21.2008
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Lazy wankers.
Could you post the whole list please? I'm hoping the US Federal Government is on there, or at least the IRS.
http://ds.qj.net/The-Greenpeace-Greener-Electronics-Ranking-revisited/pg/49/aid/116220
it doesn't help that the money that nintendo makes in america is severly crippled thanks to the weak dollar.
i myself love any chance to tell those greenpeace hippes to go F--K the nearest tree.
better yet they should line up police spikes and jump on them from a trampoline. they probably wouldnt do that because their blood would contaminate the ground water and ph levels and yadayadayada...... damn hippies.
A 30 precent reduction in stock value is fucking huge. What's the reasoning for this? I thought Nintendo was owning the fuck out of the Japanese market.
Changing to "hold" isn't an indication that anything is wrong, it's that they don't believe they will be exceeding their proposed financial numbers.
Besides, it's not like Nintendo was rated a "Strong Buy" by them anyway. If KBC marked them as "underperform" or "sell", then you might be able to write a snarky remark using the word "premature" if you did the research into Nintendo's financial projections and found it to be unfounded.
This kind of rating jumble happens all the time to much larger companies doing much more business than Nintendo. I take it that you've determined that all other stock trading firms still have Nintendo at "buy" or "strong buy"?
Oooh...burn!
And I love how newbies show up and try and flex some muscle for one topic, never to be seen again.
@Gameboi: Although JamnOnTheOne came of as a bit of an ass, he does have some points, while at the same time missing a few key points of data himself. Nintendo stock has dropped 22% this year, partly on fears of American recession. The market has already taken reduced earnings based on the declining dollar into account. However, you'll see that Nintendo's stock jumped 5% in yesterday's trading, which is most likely tied to a growing feeling that America's banking system is no longer facing a meltdown. This led the dollar to increase, and Nintendo's stock.
To sum up, KBC looks more reactionary than visionary in this case. Since supply is still constrained in Europe and NA, if neither currency weakens, there's not much chance Nintendo's earnings will take a big hit. It's strange that they focus on the foreign market so much when domestic sales are weakening for Nintendo, partly due to DS saturation and partly due to an overall weak console gaming market there now.
I swear I can spell. Damn you, IRC typing habits!
And kudos to JamnOnTheOne's post...although it is generally not smart to insult the blogger on his own comment page...
They rated Apple as the worst computer manufacturer, when they're the only ones that have discontinued mercury laden backlights and the (not actually dangerous at all) PVC and Polybrominated plastics. They're also directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Africans when they convinced the King of Zaire to turn away 200,000 tons of genetically engineered corn. Nevermind that this corn was engineered specifically to grow well in Zaire's arid climate as a sustainable food and industrial crop, as well as provide ample food supply as soon as they hoisted it off the boat. Instead they appealed to a man that has never had any problems putting food on his own plate while sitting in his palace, convincing him he was hurting his populous by feeding them.
@Chad - Stock analysts don't analyze the market, they influence it. Most of the time, they just go with the flow. As soon as one of these old, white, "I can't set the clock on my VCR" morons comes across something they don't understand, like videogame console sales slowing as the market is saturated and supply is low, they tell all their old, white, stupid investors to run for the hills. When these morons dump their shares, prices drop. Then they buy it back up at a lower rate and continue making money.
That's an interesting market theory. It goes a long way towards explaining why old white men struggle so much to gain economic parity with, say, inner-city youth.
I mean, shit, it still seems so crazy!
Wii Fit anyone? come on, just toss me your friend code!
Yikes, I didn't know clarifying an article with factual information would incur your wrath. JamnOnTheOne is compeltely right up there by the way.
And it's not like their foretelling of Nintendo's DOOOOOM!! They only downgrading the INCREASE that they thought Nintendo would recieve by 30%. Overall Nintendo's stock price is NOT being forecast to drop 30%, only their stock's projected increase for the following year.
Stocks are hella complicated, boi. When JAPANESE stock experts say that Nintendo probably won't experience as much growth this year as opposed to last (yes, that's basically all they're saying), I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and guess they have some idea what they're talking about.
PS: I also liked how you went straight to the "OMG, YOU'RE A N00B" argument to try and discredit him. Not posting regularly on a gaming blog is in no way an indicator of intelligence or correctness.
Here are the basics for economics right now:
a) USA is fucked, ok? get it? Is going to take a while with exports and consuming to grow.
b) the dollar is beign ass raped too. Which helps exports but USA is not exporting a lot right now anyway...
c) the euro is strong and still videogames companies make the real money with sales in europe thanks to the euro.
d) im bored, I live in south america, we went through this jaba jaba six years ago.
Can we move out to videogames now? Or at least porn?
I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, I wasn't an economics major, but this all seems kind of rudimentary to me.
Investors are so damn twitchy.
For everything Nintendo is online, it fails terribly.