After a particularly rough patch following its 2011 IPO, Zynga Inc (ZNGA) has managed to stabilize as a company and become a leading player in mobile gaming with a management strategy based on a combination of solid in-house game development and pertinent strategic acquisitions.

The past few months have been mixed for the company. While the lockdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in increased game time and significant growth in in-app purchases, it also resulted in advertisers slashing budgets, which affected ad revenues. Also, Apple's new policy to curb access to users' unique Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) could have

Frank Sands (Trades, Portfolio)' Sands Capital Management manages a $41.32 billion equity portfolio composed of 77 stocks as of the quarter's end. The firm sold shares of the following stocks during the second quarter of 2020.

Alibaba

The fund trimmed its position in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) by 20.58%. The trade had an impact of -1.17% on the portfolio.

The Chinese online and mobile commerce company has a market cap of $690.20 billion and an enterprise value of $675.85 billion.

GuruFocus gives the company a profitability and growth rating

The following tech companies have improved their quarterly revenue and net income dramatically on a year over year basis, so growth investors may be interested in their U.S. listed stocks.

Marathon Patent Group Inc

The first company which tech growth investors may be interested in is Marathon Patent Group Inc (MARA), a Las Vegas-based owner and operator of digital machines for the mining of cryptocurrencies.

The digital assets tech company saw its quarterly revenue grow by 157% year-over-year to $592,487 as of the first quarter of 2020, up from $230,694 in the comparable quarter of 2019.

Marathon Patent Group

The other is Activision (ATVI), one of the largest video game companies in the world. We believe it has a strong competitive position as its franchises -- which include World of Warcraft, Call of Duty and Candy Crush -- have attracted legions of loyal fans. Sheltering in place has provided a short-term benefit to the company, but will likely lure new customers to try out the games, and thus grow the video game industry overall. The longer we stay sheltered in place, the more Activision will likely benefit.

From [url=https://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Mairs+and+Power]Mairs and Power[/url] ([url=https://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Mairs+and+Power]Trades[/url], [url=https://www.gurufocus.com/holdings.php?GuruName=Mairs+and+Power]Portfolio[/url])'s Growth Fund second-quarter 2020

Market Overview Second Quarter 2020

After the storms of the first quarter, the financial climate felt a little more settled in the second quarter. True, there is still a great deal of uncertainty in the air. Companies are still reporting layoffs, earnings remain under pressure, and the novel coronavirus is yet to be contained. But there are some hopeful signs. One notably encouraging sign, of course, is the overall market’s dramatic recovery in the second quarter.

The numbers tell a tale of two very different quarters. The S&P 500 Total Return (TR) Index rose 20.54% for the second quarter, compared

“You say you want a revolution. Well you know...we all want to change the world...Don’t you know...it’s gonna be... all right...all right...all right.” The Beatles. “Revolution.” 1968.

In Spring 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s voter approval ratings fell precipitously. This was amid massive, student-led, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. Students then demanded of our government, “Out Now!!!” The President’s fall from grace was despite his consequential accomplishments, which included landmark Civil Rights, Voting Rights, Immigration Reform, Medicare, VISTA, and War on Poverty legislation. When, on March 31, 1968, the President acceded to protesters’ demands, he first told his family he had “done

GuruFocus notes that four video game stocks are currently trading within 10% of their 52-week highs. Companies include CD Projekt SA (OTGLY), Capcom Co. Ltd. (CCOEY), Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) and Square Enix Holdings Co. Ltd. (SQNXF).

Interactive Media companies rank eighth overall on GuruFocus' list of industries nearing 52-week highs. Forerunner industries include Software, Asset Management, Diversified Financial Services, Biotechnology, Industrial Products, Consumer Packaged Goods and Hardware.

CD Projekt

As of June 19, CD Projekt was trading 110.63% above its 52-week low of $12.32. The company is currently trading at $25.95 with a market cap of $9.98 billion. According

Baron Funds, the asset management firm founded by Ron Baron (Trades, Portfolio), disclosed this week that its top five position boosts for the fourth quarter of 2019 were in GDS Holdings Ltd. (GDS), Globant SA (GLOB), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA), Kinsale Capital Group Inc. (KNSL), Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (BAM).

Baron co-manages the Asset Fund and manages the Growth and Partners Funds. The fund manager invests primarily in small and mid-size companies that have open-ended growth opportunities and defensible niches.

The fund applies bottom-up research with a value-oriented purchase discipline and

Soros Fund Management, the firm founded by legendary guru George Soros (Trades, Portfolio), disclosed last week that its top five buys for the fourth quarter of 2019 were in Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), Tiffany & Co. (TIF), Campbell Soup Co. (CPB), Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (PXD) and WellCare Health Plans Inc. (WCG).

Soros’ theory of reflexivity is based on the premise that individual investor biases affect the economy and market transactions. The guru’s firm seeks investing opportunities through the study of value and market prices of assets, stocks, bonds and other securities.

Ron Baron (Trades, Portfolio), the CEO and portfolio manager of Baron Funds, bought shares of the following stocks in both the second and third quarters of fiscal 2019.

Acceleron Pharma

The guru increased the Acceleron Pharma Inc. (XLRN) position by 66.88% in the second quarter and then added 45.41% in the third quarter. The stock has a weight of 0.05% in the portfolio.

The biotechnology company has a market cap of $2.31 billion. Its revenue of $38 million has fallen 36% per annum over the last five years.

Baron is the

Lone Pine Capital, the hedge fund founded by Julian Robertson (Trades, Portfolio) protégé Steve Mandel (Trades, Portfolio), disclosed over the past few weeks that it raised its bet on Domino’s Pizza Inc. (DPZ) on Aug. 20 and established five new positions during the second quarter: Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER), Chewy Inc. (CHWY), Coupa Software Inc. (COUP) and Atlassian Corp. PLC (TEAM).

Mandel worked at Robertson’s Tiger Management prior to founding Lone Pine, a long-short hedge fund that invests in public equity markets across the globe using a fundamental, bottom-up stock

Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio), founder of Renaissance Technologies Corp., sold shares of the following stocks in the second quarter.

The guru closed his UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) holding. The trade had an impact of -0.28% on the portfolio.

The provider of health insurance services has a market cap of $236.18 billion and an enterprise value of $263.94 billion.

GuruFocus gives the company a profitability and growth rating of 7 out of 10. The return on equity of 25.48% and return on assets of 8.26% are outperforming 68% of companies in

Shares of Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) moved 1.78% lower to $48.46 in after-hours trading Thursday, even though the company beat consensus estimates on second-quarter earnings per share by 21 cents.

Earnings per share were 43 cents, or nearly 19% lower compared to the prior-year quarter.

Net revenues declined 15% to approximately $1.4 billion.

The last few earnings reports didn’t thrill investors as the U.S. electronic gaming and multimedia company showed declines instead of growth in key metrics such as audience size, bookings, engagement and monetization.

The second-quarter results served investors fresh year-over-year declines in key metrics.

Total audience size: total

Andreas Halvorsen (Trades, Portfolio), manager of Viking Global Investors, disclosed this week his top five buys for the first quarter were JD.com Inc. (JD), Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), MercadoLibre Inc. (MELI), NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI) and Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI).

Halvorsen, a former protégé of Tiger Management's Julian Robertson (Trades, Portfolio), founded Viking in 1999. According to its website, Viking manages approximately $28 billion in capital for its investors and employs a research-intensive, long-term-focused investment approach. The Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund invests in public and private equity securities based on a thorough assessment of the

According to the GuruFocus All-In-One Screener, the following companies have grown their book value per share (BV/S) over the past decade.

BV/S is calculated as total equity minus preferred stock, divided by shares outstanding. Theoretically, it is what shareholders will receive if a company is liquidated. Total equity is a balance sheet item and equal to total assets minus total liabilities. Since the BV/S may not reflect the company’s true value, some investors check the tangible book value to confirm their investment ideas.

The BV/S of Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) has grown 9.90% over the last 10 years. The

According to the GuruFocus All-in-One Screener, the following stocks are trading at a discount and have positive three- to five-year future earnings estimates.

Autoliv Inc. (ALV) is trading around $78 per share. The discounted cash flow calculator gives the stock a fair value of $101.98 per share, suggesting it has a 23% margin of safety at current prices.

The manufacturer of passive and active safety systems has a GuruFocus profitability and growth rating of 6 out of 10. Its earnings per share have increased 0.60% over the last five years. Analysts project a

Shares of game developer Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) rose over 3.89% after the closing bell on Tuesday on fourth-quarter 2018 earnings results. The company’s stock is down over 43% in the last six months due to a decline in earnings per share and revenue.

Net revenues for the year hit $7.50 billion, up from $7.02 billion in 2017. Digital channels were attributed to $5.79 billion in GAAP net revenues.

Net revenue was $2.38 billion for the quarter, up from $2.04 billion in the prior-year quarter. GAAP operating margins were 29%.

Earnings per share reached 84 cents in the

Activision Blizzard (ATVI), a $38.7 billion interactive content and service developer, recently lost 9% of its share price after transfering publishing rights of the futuristic action game Destiny to the gaming studio Bungie.

The split will mark the end of the eighth year of a 10-year contract established in 2010 between Activision and Bungie to develop the Destiny game.

Hiccups during the Destiny game development have surfaced, and missed sales goals for the game may have pushed the break up.

Although Activision exceeded its prior outlook for its recent quarter (third quarter 2018) figures,

U.S. stocks were in positive territory on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 120 points to 23,656, the S&P 500 index gained 0.32% to 2,557 and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.40% to 6,854.

Shares of The Meet Group Inc. (MEET) jumped more than 8% on Tuesday after the company announced preliminary fourth-quarter results. It projected revenue of $52.3 million, higher than prior revenue guidance of $47.8 million to $48.8 million. Further, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization are expeted to be $10.3 million, up from its prior outlook of $8.7 million to $9.1 million.

In recent months, GuruFocus began tracking a new investor, [url=http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Philippe+Laffont]Philippe Laffont[/url] ([url=http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Philippe+Laffont]Trades[/url], [url=http://www.gurufocus.com/holdings.php?GuruName=Philippe+Laffont]Portfolio[/url]) of global investment firm Coatue Management.

Laffont began his investment career three years before Coatue as an employee of [url=http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Julian+Robertson]Julian Robertson[/url] ([url=http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Julian+Robertson]Trades[/url], [url=http://www.gurufocus.com/holdings.php?GuruName=Julian+Robertson]Portfolio[/url])’s Tiger Management hedge fund. The experience earned him the designation of “Tiger Cub,” placing him in the company of other noted hedge fund managers who launched their own funds after time at Robertson’s firm, such as [url=http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Andreas+Halvorsen]Andreas Halvorsen[/url] ([url=http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Andreas+Halvorsen]Trades[/url], [url=http://www.gurufocus.com/holdings.php?GuruName=Andreas+Halvorsen]Portfolio[/url]), [url=http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Chase+Coleman]Chase Coleman[/url] ([url=http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Chase+Coleman]Trades[/url], [url=http://www.gurufocus.com/holdings.php?GuruName=Chase+Coleman]Portfolio[/url]) and [url=http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Lee+Ainslie]Lee Ainslie[/url] ([url=http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Lee+Ainslie]Trades[/url], [url=http://www.gurufocus.com/holdings.php?GuruName=Lee+Ainslie]Portfolio[/url]).

Since his firm’s inception in 1999, Laffont has focused primarily on the technology sector, which