UPDATE: Ascendiant Capital Raises PT on GameStop Ahead of Q1 2013 Results

In a report published Friday, Ascendiant Capital analyst Edward Woo reiterated a Buy rating on GameStop Corp. GME, and raised the price target from $34.00 to $44.00. In the report, Woo noted, “GameStop will report Q1 2013 (April) results before market open on Thursday, May 23 with a conference call at 8:00am PT. We expect Q1 results slightly below our estimates, for revenue of $1.85 billion and EPS of $0.43, and consensus for revenue of $1.84 billion and EPS of $0.40. Q1 guidance is for revenue of $1.83 – 1.88 billion, comps of -8.0% to -5.5%, and EPS of $0.38 – 0.43. We estimate that overall U.S. video game industry sales were weak at -20% in GameStop's Q1, but that GameStop performed better due to market share gains (similar to Q4 when it reported comps of -4.6% although industry sales were ~-17%). We expect management to maintain FY13 EPS guidance of $2.75 – 3.15, but to lower guidance for revenue (for $8.18 - 8.89 billion (-8.0% to 0% growth)) and comps (for-6.0% to +1.5%) due to continued weak video game industry sales.” GameStop Corp. closed on Thursday at $38.05.