Investor snapshot: Electronics Boutique wins big

Game stocks were virtually flat Monday, with a few exceptions. One of those exceptions was Electronics Boutique (ELBO), whose shares shot $4.47 higher today, rising 10.5 percent to close at $47.02. Those results came after Anthony Gikas, an analyst with PiperJaffray, released a memo today in which he boosted the company's stock rating to "outperform" and raised his price target for Electronics Boutique to $50.

Gikas upped his EB rating for a number of reasons, including a "superior allocation" of PSP hardware and software during the handheld's launch, the upcoming introduction of the next-gen Xbox, and the potential for healthy growth--both in stores and among companies in the game sector--in late 2006 through 2007. The next-gen hardware cycle puts EB in a prime position, Gikas wrote in his memo: "'Hard-core' gamers will flock to specialty retailers for game purchases--Wal-Mart is not the destination for enthusiasts."

Though the other specialty retailer for games, GameStop Corp. (GME), was not named in Gikas' memo, shares in the company climbed 87 cents Monday, closing at $23.42. Shares in Eidos (EIDSY), Midway (MWY), Take-Two Interactive (TTWO), and Vivendi Universal (V) were trading pennies higher today.

Electronic Arts (ERTS) continued its downhill slide Monday, as its shares lost $1.15 to close at $54.02. Shares in Activision (ATVI) slid 34 cents to $16.16, while Konami (KNM) shares fell 38 cents to close at $22.59. Shares in Jamdat Mobile (JMDT) traded 16 cents lower at $17.81. THQ Inc. (THQI) shares closed at $28.37--12 cents lower--and shares in Atari were down 11 cents to $3.01.

In Japan, shares in Nintendo lost 10 yen (9 cents), closing at 11,480 yen ($107.06). In Paris, where shares in Ubisoft are traded, the markets were closed Monday for the Easter holiday.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 42.78 points to 10,485. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed 1.46 points higher at 1,992.52, and the S&P 500 gained 2.86 points to close at 1,174.28. MarketWatch reported that investor optimism could be attributed, at least in part, to the lower price of crude oil on Monday.

In the foreign markets
In the Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 Average, South Korea's Kospi Index, and Taiwan's Taiex were higher, while the Shanghai Composite index was down, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was closed for Easter. Tech stocks fared well in the region, as shares in Samsung Electronics, Tokyo Electron, NEC, Advantest, and Hynix Semiconductor rose on Monday.