UPDATE: Benchmark Initiates Coverage on Zynga with Hold on Mixed Factors

In a report published Thursday, Benchmark Company analyst Mike Hickey initiated coverage on

with a Hold rating and $2.98 price target. In the report, Benchmark Company noted, “The Company's product portfolio and subsequent financial performance should benefit from the rapidly expanding smartphone / tablet hardware device market and related consumer software ecosystem. A new generation of gamers is growing up on mobile platforms, with connected mobility offering a personalized entertainment / utility platform that will forever disrupt the traditional game landscape, and where the Company's product portfolio should directly benefit. We pacified our bullish enthusiasm over compelling market trends with an acknowledgement that the extreme value destruction from an accelerated player fade within their web business could persist indefinitely; a continued suggestive that the Company must provide a believable web stabilization trend and / or material mobile acceleration; before valuation can reset a positive forward trend.” Zynga closed on Wednesday at $2.75.