Nintendo's stock price since July 2004 (it's increasing)

by Blake Snow { Oct 31st 2006 at 4:30PM }

Click image to enlarge

The above graph shows a rise in expectations for returns on Nintendo stock since July of 2004. Ever since the Wii was formally unveiled (at least the console's concept sans controllers) at E3 2005, investors are clearly enthusiastic about the system's prospects as the above 105.2% run-up indicates. Strong DS sales have gotta be factored in there too. But has the stock appreciated too much? Care to make a comment bet on the price for this time next year? Ah, but talk is cheap. Any investors out there willing to let it ride on Nintendo with real dollars?

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

crono141 @ Oct 31st 2006 4:36PM

I just sold mine,

Only had 4 shares anyway, and I need that hundred bucks this month.

PBJ Time @ Oct 31st 2006 4:37PM

I have with a couple thou. I got in at the re-release of the DS. Since then, share prices have appreciated approx. 100%. Not bad for a year ;D

Skippy @ Oct 31st 2006 4:37PM

I really wish I had invested in Nintendo a while ago. However, stock prices tend to drop upon the release of a new system. It's been increasing so far due to strong DS sales and massive hype for the Wii. When the Wii launches, the stock will drop, but it could climb back (possibly higher than before) depending on the Wii's success. I think the Wii will be successful, so buying stock seems like a safe bet.

John @ Oct 31st 2006 4:38PM

the DS kicks ass so go nintendo on that front but i cant see the same thing for the wii! all its got is motion sensing with a lousy processor, lousy graphics card and so on! i think this time 2 years itl be a different story!

gjd @ Oct 31st 2006 5:42PM

w00t, I bought 50 shares last September. It's been growing wonderfully since then! I think the majority of the rise, honestly, has been because of the DS.

The rise includes the release and subsequent popularity of Nintendogs, Brain Training, New Super Mario Bros., as well as the DS Lite which was sold out everywhere. That thing was unstoppable.

I'm not sure Wall Street is as expectant of the Wii's upcoming immense popularity as a lot of gamers seem to be. Most things I read on the Wii have it selling modestly, but not much better than the Gamecube. I mean, the people who *really* move the stock price (i.e. heads of Mutual Funds and whatnot) aren't gonna be the ones reading Joystiq. As far as they know, Nintendo is releasing a Gamecube follow up.

Just give it time. If the Wii has a smashing launch that will catch their attention. Huge jump in stock price Nov. 20th is my prediction... Once I have my hands on a Wii I think I'll probably sell my stock. A stock is a good investment if you think everyone is underestimating it. I think that's the case for Nintendo now, but eventually people will catch on.

Miniboss @ Oct 31st 2006 4:43PM

@ #4.

"the DS kicks ass so go nintendo on that front but i cant see the same thing for the wii! all its got is motion sensing with a lousy processor, lousy graphics card and so on! i think this time 2 years itl be a different story!"

Yes, and all the DS has is a touch screen with a lousy processor, lousy graphics card, and so on. Power has never dictated the winner in the console wars. The biggest difference this time around is that no one actually knows what's going to happen.

Rabish12 @ Oct 31st 2006 4:44PM

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/rabish12/DSPrintsMoney.jpg

SkullFry @ Oct 31st 2006 4:46PM

simply stated we

Sam @ Oct 31st 2006 4:48PM

And for those interested in Sony's latest stock prices, turn your monitors upside down

SkullFry @ Oct 31st 2006 4:48PM

.. there was an E-Heart gameplay.... but apparently theres "no need to use...."

John @ Oct 31st 2006 4:52PM

but the ds had a simple concept which is what you need for handhelds. no loading times, longer battery life and a fun touch screen are great if you are sitting on the train or at the bus station as you dont have to sit and wait for your game to load and then watch a complicated movie explaining the games complicated plot, the psp tried to be a portable ps2 and it sucks (i have both). with proper consoles its a whole different ball game and the oversimplified concept doesnt work. neither does the overcomplicated concept (ps3). the next gen of console gaming is here and its the 360! there...

ConstyXIV @ Oct 31st 2006 4:53PM

@4
Lousy processor: It's more or less a PowerPC, the same processor used in (recently) the Mac, the Xbox360(Xenon is PPC-based), and PS3 (Cell is also PPC-based). It's most definitely 2x Gamecube (which held it's own against the Xbox), and much lower power reqs to boot, which is why the Wii is so small (much less cooling apparatus). Since the GameCube was also using PowerPC, it makes working in backwards compatibility a non-issue (looking at Microsoft).
Lousy graphics: See above, ATi makes quite good graphics, if you didn't know (Xbox360 also). Judging by the GameCube, Nintendo could make it put out 720p with a software update, but Nintendo is also concerned with performance (Most 1st party GCN games ran @ 60 FPS)
And I'm glad Nintendo is sticking to keeping it a "game console". Xbox and PS3 seem to be more like media center boxes that can play games, like the PSP (Played games, movies, music, etc. and not particularly remarkable for any of those tasks)

me @ Oct 31st 2006 4:54PM

"And for those interested in Sony's latest stock prices, turn your monitors upside down."

Upside down it's still a rising trend -- you'd have to turn it sideways to depict Sony.

John @ Oct 31st 2006 4:58PM

@11

the wiis processor is a pile of crap and you know it. and the graphics are well and truly last gen. the controller had been done in the 90's for the playstation. nintendo are just doing a sega and selling a piece of crap to make lots of money so they can move into making games full time.

adam @ Oct 31st 2006 5:02PM

give #8 (Sam) a star

Sam @ Oct 31st 2006 5:03PM

Upside down it's still a rising trend -- you'd have to turn it sideways to depict Sony.
Ok upside down and sideways then :)

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/5489/lolsonyib9.png

ConstyXIV @ Oct 31st 2006 5:09PM

@John:
Sure, I'll buy an Xbox360 to play Quake 2 with more shinyness (Gears). Except, I played the hell out of Quake2 when it came out. I have no real desire to play it again, though. If you wouldn't mind, tell me what significant advances Microsoft has made in how the games are played. Mentioning graphics or horsepower renders your statements null and void.

I'll wait...

ConstyXIV @ Oct 31st 2006 5:11PM

PS: Nintendo has stated that they will drop gaming completely if they stop making hardware

grub @ Oct 31st 2006 5:13PM

I've got 60 shares that I bought at $22 back in early July this year. I'm debating on selling all of them off at the Wii launch or holding onto a few.....

John @ Oct 31st 2006 5:13PM

@16

for a long time now games on windows pcs have set the standard for consoles. now microsoft have used xbox live to set for online gaming. nuff said.

Zo� K. @ Oct 31st 2006 5:21PM

I had meant to buy stock in Nintendo shortly after I bought my Gamecube, as I was in the Navy and had a lot of money to blow. That's not the case anymore.

I'll just wait until the stock drops again, as it inevitably will... and if I care enough and have the money come that time, I'll hop onboard.

jabbertrack @ Oct 31st 2006 5:37PM

lol... graphs

so retarded

Nate @ Oct 31st 2006 5:54PM

#8 If you turned your monitor upside down than Sonys chart would be pretty decent, up and then a base. It would be going sideways not down.

alex @ Oct 31st 2006 5:47PM

After playing different games for hundreds of hours:

If I had any shares, I'd sell them just before the Wii comes out.

Rabish12 @ Oct 31st 2006 5:52PM

18: Seems to me that the only gaming standards that Microsoft's ever had a hand in setting were for realistic flight sims, which are prohibitively rare on consoles, and FPS controls, which wasn't them directly. Even PC games hadn't really done anything for console games until recently (most "standards" for console games were set either by other console games, as was the case with titles like JRPGs and the sort, or by arcade games, with fighters, action titles, and all that), and recently most of what it's been is ports and multiplatform releases, meaning that it's not really setting a standard since it's really just the same games released on more than one system.

Unless you're talking in terms of more behind-the-scenes stuff like hardware, coding, or visuals, in which case you're completely wrong. Consoles didn't use similar hardware until recently and now it tends to be more of a shared thing (consoles and PCs both share credit for advancing hardware), coding is quite different between PCs and non-MS consoles, and visuals on non-MS platforms still aren't handled by the same sort of thing as they are on MS platforms (no Direct X).

Nintendo set some standards in the console industry, what with the D-pad, the shoulder buttons, the diamond-shaped button layout, and the analog thumbstick (yes, PC controllers had thumbsticks before then, but they didn't detect different degrees of tilt and if they did they certainly didn't take advantage of it). Sony set some standards by making support of additional media (CDs and DVDs) common in consoles (two out of three companies now do that). Microsoft? Not so much. I mean, there's Xbox Live, but that sort of thing's been around on computers for around a decade, and a lot of the stuff involved in it hasn't really caught on yet.

josh @ Oct 31st 2006 5:58PM

"nintendo are just doing a sega and selling a piece of crap to make lots of money so they can move into making games full time."

how is that pulling a sega? the dreamcast wasn't a piece of crap, but it also didn't make them a lot of money, either... and why would they stop selling something that's making lots of money? the wii may or may not be a hit, but either way, your comment just doesn't make sense.

Zac @ Oct 31st 2006 5:55PM

Investing in Nintendo is an immense pain in the ass. I did it for a while before the gamecube came out and got out with something on the order of a 10% gain.

First of all, the stock is actually traded in Osaka, so completely independent of Nintendo's performance, you have to worry about the Dollar/Yen exchange rate.

Pile on top of that the fact that the number of NTDOY ADRs outstanding is relatively small (as well as its American volume), so any trades you try to make are going to sit for a while, while your broker tries to find a buyer or a seller.

Finally, keep in mind that getting reliable information in English on the activity of the Osaka stock market is difficult, and that the price of the ADR is only updated once a day -- in fact many online financial sites don't even list it.

If you can stomach all that, and you truly believe the Wii isn't just (financially) a rehash of the underwhelming GameCube, go for it!

gman @ Oct 31st 2006 6:45PM

The gamecube DID make nintendo a shitload of money, and the wii WILL as well, there is no reason this would be their last console in anyway. Theyre releasing at a profit unlike the other two, so much easier to make money off the bat

john @ Oct 31st 2006 6:57PM

@11
how can you possibly saw gamecube held its own agaisnt xbox. Im not an xbox, ps, or gc fanboy but i know how to compare when it comes to sales. Gc is one horrible piece of machinery intended solely for children ages 3-12. Ps is for your average teenager and xbox is more of a hardcore gamer system. "hold its own"?.. you must be kidding me

Scott @ Oct 31st 2006 7:08PM

@29

There is no such thing as a Console for a Hardcore Gamer. Consoles are pansy machines for pansy gamers.

Justice @ Oct 31st 2006 7:27PM

I bought a lot of shares in 2000... but that was when the price was 27 dollars. So I still haven't made any money... yet.

umm....hello? @ Oct 31st 2006 7:36PM

you people fail to realize that stocks are more of a long-term investment (barring all the wannabe day-trader investors)....having said that, I've had stock in NTDOY for about 5 years now, and they pay some REALLY nice dividends (earlier this year they had higher than estimated earnings, which translated into a $1 (USD) per share increase...the original per share dividend was something like $2.19 and increased to $3.37 (roughly))...which is great because I use it for Income distributions.

Zac-
and buying/selling stocks for ALL foreign (and domestic) is a hassle....what about your capital gains and losses? blah blah...

and actually, if you're REALLY smart, you'd be buying shares of Sony, because while they are taking a beating and their stock is declining, you can buy the shares at a discount (as opposed to Nintendo because you are paying a premium when it is at a higher markup), because eventually the shares SHOULD go up (assuming that Sony doesn't go bankrupt/out of business, of course).

best yet, just buy shares of the stock market cap indexes, because they tend to outperform individual stocks anyways over the years due to excellent diversification.

eatrice @ Oct 31st 2006 9:32PM

I bought some Nintendo stock a while back (when it was around $18), sold some of it to make a profit but still maintain a majority. I put in an order to buy some more yesterday but now this joystiq post comes up and now I question if I should take off my limit order. Thanks Joystiq!

Travi$ @ Oct 31st 2006 8:03PM

@29

He was saying that Gamecube helds its own against Xbox in the power/graphics department... and it did! Have you ever heard of a game called Resident Evil 4(and not the lame ps2 port)? That game STILL holds its own against 360 games! Not to mention that Capcom said that they hadnt ever reached the gamecubes full graphical potential. So a Gamecube x2 would not be this horrible looking machine, it will be comparative graphically like the ps2 was last gen.

number40one @ Oct 31st 2006 8:04PM

Just for the record, on paper and in practice, the GC outperformed the PS2 on nearly every front. You might not have liked the kiddy images or the Ninty franchises, but I'll be dammed if that wasn't an exemplary piece of technical hardware.

Plus, you could drag it behind a truck for a few miles, plug it in, and the thing would still work. I'm afraid that if I LOOK at my PS2 cross-eyed, it will fall apart in a heap of black plastic and silicon.

brian @ Oct 31st 2006 9:29PM

you fanboys are looking at this all wrong. (except for 32) Looking at the three console makers, which one will be making profit off of its console right out of the gate? Nintendo. Microsoft and sony are both banking on selling enough systems that their software sales will recoup their losses (it will work, but it'll take time).

Nintendo is already producing at a high volume, making profit. It's also the cheapest system, which will appeal to parents (a huge market).

I plan on buying a ps3, but when nintendo's stock dips after launch, i'll snatch that up. I also plan on buying some sony stock because barring some disaster, sony's stock recover from its slump. that's a more long-term investment.

blaine @ Nov 1st 2006 9:08AM

I bought Nintendo at $13. I tried to convince my girlfriend to dump a chunk of our savings into stock.

It's the only stock I've ever bought.

I got it mostly because I thought they were gonna have a strong year.

With the Wii making a profit at launch, I'm not touching it until it doubles again. So if you want it... I'd still buy now.

Mabui @ Oct 31st 2006 9:36PM

Good for Nintendo, though the stock market is such a fickle thing.. just give me good games that I can enjoy coming back too and I'll be pleased.

Sloan Ranger @ Oct 31st 2006 11:07PM

I think he meant to FLIP the graph upside down, NOT ROTATE it upside down.

Brian is all over it - the Wii is the only console to be sold at a profit before any games are sold. Given the hype surrounding launch (look at the mainstream media that have covered it) and sony's near-complete implosion, the forecast should be golden for the time being. And heck, the DS lineup for the rest of the year ain't too shabby either!

jadenguy @ Nov 1st 2006 1:45AM

finish this phrase
buy ___
sell ___
fact is, every american alive knows this to be true. listen to 32, sony is really low, and ford is also kinda sucking now. within 5 years, i'm sure you'll see major percentage increases. also, if nintendo does take a drop after the release (btw, for the first few million units they will be selling at a loss), i'd buy then.

suggesting indexed stocks is a good idea too, 32. it's very plausible to make a 10% average yearly return on indexed stock, if you roll the dice enough. again, 5 years is pretty much the rule when it comes stock. so be prepared to see your money shrink a crapload at least once without pulling out. it's a sort of swedish rodeo.

and as always, risk yield potential reward, not guarunteed.

Tyler @ Nov 1st 2006 1:54AM

Everyone's right about Sony and Microsoft's eventual plan, i.e. selling enough units to make up for their loss in software licensing, but it's by no means a guarantee that it will net them a profit.

Microsoft lost 1.52 billion dollars on the XboX, and the 360 isn't hitting the marks they planned for it (though it might just.) The sustained loss leader is a very risky proposition, and one that many stockholders have little confidence in. There's absolutely no guarantee that either company will turn a profit from this venture. If both Sony and Microsoft didn't have other profitable divisions, they would not be a part of this generation of consoles.

Nintendo, on the other hand...

pandlcg @ Nov 1st 2006 11:07AM

Who still uses bloomberg for their graphs? Yuck.

Cris @ Nov 27th 2006 7:29PM

As the Mom of two heavy-duty gamers who has bought every system as it came out, I love the Game Cube, and expect to feel the same about the Wii. No other console has ever had such an abundance of great games that aren't full of blood and gore. Kids of every age love Super Smash Brothers Melee, and that includes guys in their 20's. That's why I've bought two Wii's, and I'm looking to acquire some of Nintendo's stock. (Also, the DS and DS lite are great too!)