Zynga Posts Record Q4 Results on Historic Bookings; Website Visits Hinted at It

Social game services provider Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) posted strong bookings and revenues in the fourth quarter of 2021. Meanwhile, the company reported a loss in the quarter.

Remarkably, the year 2021 recorded the highest annual revenue and bookings in Zynga’s history.

Quarterly Results in Detail

Zynga reported its best-ever quarterly net bookings of $727 million, up 4% year-over-year, and topped the consensus estimate of $719.59 million. The company also surpassed the guidance of $715 million.

Average mobile daily active users (DAUs) came in at 37 million, up 3%, while average mobile monthly active users (MAUs) were 184 million, up 38%. The surge reflects increased interest in mobile gaming due to restrictions posed in the continual pandemic.

Total revenues of $695 million grew 13% year-over-year and came in above the company’s guidance of $675 million. It also beat analysts’ expectations of $719.8 million.

In the fourth quarter, adjusted EBITDA stood at $147 million, up 63% year-over-year.

The company reported a loss of $0.06 per share, compared with a $0.05 loss per share recorded in the same quarter last year. Net loss was $67 million, up 27% year-over-year.

Full-Year 2021 Results

For 2021, Zynga reported total revenue of $2.8 billion, up 42% year-over-year, while its record bookings stood at $2.8 billion, up 24%. The loss came in at $0.09 per share, down from a loss of $0.42 per share recorded in the prior year.

Record annual average mobile DAUs were 39 million, up 41%, while all-time best annual average mobile MAUs grew 107% to 184 million.

CEO’s Comments

In response to encouraging results, Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau commented, “Our strong Q4 results capped off our record 2021 performance where we delivered our highest annual revenue and bookings ever, while reaching the largest mobile audience in Zynga history. I am proud of our team’s execution across all aspects of our growth strategy including live services, new game development and investments in our advertising platform, new markets and technologies to solidify Zynga as a leading mobile-first, free-to-play live services company.”

Wall Street’s Take

The rest of the Street is cautiously optimistic about the stock, with a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 5 Buys and 8 Holds. The average Zynga price target of $10.06 implies 9.71% upside potential. Shares have lost 4.6% over the past year.

Website Traffic

These results were observable on TipRanks’ new tool that measures visits to Zynga’s website. Pre-earnings, we were able to see insights into Zynga’s performance in the December quarter.

According to the tool, a website traffic uptrend was visible. In Q4 2021, total estimated visits on zynga.com showed an increasing trend, on a global basis, representing a 99.45% jump from the third quarter. This, in turn, had indicated that the company might report strong bookings in the reported quarter. The predictions that were based on TipRanks’ website visits data turned out to be correct, with Zynga reporting the highest number of bookings in its history in Q4 2021.

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