{"id":312012,"date":"2024-02-26T11:40:49","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T17:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=312012"},"modified":"2024-02-26T11:46:55","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T17:46:55","slug":"playtika-stops-strategic-review-starts-quarterly-dividend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/playtika-stops-strategic-review-starts-quarterly-dividend\/","title":{"rendered":"Playtika Halts Strategic Review, Initiates Dividend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shares of mobile games developer Playtika (NASDAQ: PLTK) slid Monday after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings per share (EPS) that missed Wall Street estimates, and as the firm said it\u2019s halting a strategic review.<\/p>\n

\"Playtika\"
Playtika is highlighted at the Nasdaq market site in January 2021. The company is pausing a strategic review and initiating a quarterly dividend. (Image: Nasdaq)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the final three months of 2023, Playtika earned 10 cents per share on revenue of $637.9 million. Analysts expected earnings of 17 cents per share on sales of $628.98 million. Nearly two years to the day after the company announced a strategic r<\/a>eview, which could have included a sale, Playtika paused that effort, citing \u201congoing uncertainty in Israel and Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Playtika is based in Israel and has operations in Ukraine. Playtika was one of the first to offer free-to-play social games on social networks and mobile devices, and has over 35 million monthly users. Its well-known games include Bingo Blitz, Caesars Slots, Slotomania<\/em>, and World Series of Poker (WSOP) Social<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

With the strategic review on hold, the mobile games creator is taking a different approach, telling investors it will pursue mergers and acquisitions of its own.<\/p>\n

Playtika Capital Deployment Plans<\/h2>\n

Playtika concluded 2023 with $1.02 billion in cash and cash equivalents compared to a current market capitalization of $2.52 billion, indicating the stock may be undervalued following a 28% decline over the past year. The company\u2019s free cash flow jumped to $436.4 million from $383.7 million in 2022, paving the way for opportunistic mergers and acquisitions and shareholder rewards.<\/p>\n

In the past year, we\u2019ve honed our focus on efficiency and streamlined our operations, adapting to evolving industry dynamics in mobile gaming,\u201d said CEO Robert Antokol in a statement. \u201cNow, with a solid foundation, 2024 marks our shift towards reinvestment — pursuing M&A opportunities with a strategic intent of capital deployment.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Playtika said it will commence a quarterly dividend of 10 cents a share on April 5 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 22. The firm added it could consider a share repurchase<\/a> program in the future. Based on the price of the stock at this writing, dividend yield would be 2.74%.<\/p>\n

President and COO Craig Abrahams added the company will spend $600 million to $1.2 billion on mergers and acquisitions over the next three years.<\/p>\n

Playtika’s 2024 Outlook<\/h2>\n

The gaming company\u2019s tepid 2024 guidance may have also been a contributing factor in the stock sliding on Monday. Playtika said it expects 2024 sales of $2.52 billion to $2.62 billion on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $730 million to $770 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cCapital expenditures expected to be between $110 million to $115 million, which includes $17 million in accrued capital expenditures from Q4 FY2023 that will be paid in FY2024,\u201d according to the firm.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the fourth quarter, average daily paying users rose 2.3% on a quarter-over-quarter basis, but declined 2.2% year over year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shares of mobile games developer Playtika (NASDAQ: PLTK) slid Monday after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings per share (EPS) that missed Wall Street estimates, and as the firm said it\u2019s halting a strategic review. In the final three months of 2023, Playtika earned 10 cents per share on revenue of $637.9 million. Analysts expected earnings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":200404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,32093,20],"tags":[81903,81966,81906],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlaytika Stops Strategic Review, Starts Quarterly Dividend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Playtika Halts Strategic Review, Initiates Dividend.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/playtika-stops-strategic-review-starts-quarterly-dividend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Playtika Stops Strategic Review, Starts Quarterly Dividend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Playtika Halts Strategic Review, Initiates Dividend.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/playtika-stops-strategic-review-starts-quarterly-dividend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-26T17:40:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-26T17:46:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/PLTK.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@etfgodfather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/playtika-stops-strategic-review-starts-quarterly-dividend\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/playtika-stops-strategic-review-starts-quarterly-dividend\/\",\"name\":\"Playtika Stops Strategic Review, Starts Quarterly Dividend\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/playtika-stops-strategic-review-starts-quarterly-dividend\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/playtika-stops-strategic-review-starts-quarterly-dividend\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/PLTK.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-26T17:40:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-26T17:46:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\"},\"description\":\"Playtika Halts Strategic Review, Initiates Dividend.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/playtika-stops-strategic-review-starts-quarterly-dividend\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/playtika-stops-strategic-review-starts-quarterly-dividend\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/playtika-stops-strategic-review-starts-quarterly-dividend\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/PLTK.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/PLTK.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"Playtika highlight at the Nasdaq market site in January 2021. 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