🎮 Grand Theft Auto is a Money Machine

Today's sponsor

Happy Friday!

It was a relatively busy week with a lot of news. Before you settle down for the weekend, I have you covered with the biggest headlines of the week.

Some key data bites from this week that you should know: 

• Apple $AAPL surpassed $3T in market capitalization again, and is on track to end 2023 as the world's most valuable company.

• Swiss bank Banque Pictet admitted to helping U.S. taxpayers hide over $5.6B, agreeing to pay $122.9M in penalties.

• U.S. job openings fell to 8.73M in October, the lowest in over 2.5 years.

• British American Tobacco $BTI booked a $31.5B charge on its U.S. cigarette business, among the largest corporate write-offs recently.

• SpaceX is now valued at $175B, becoming one of the largest aerospace-and-defense companies in the world.

In today’s newsletter:

• 🎮 GTA Is A Money Machine

• 🍟 McDonald’s Eyes Further Expansion

• 🦴 Chewy’s Ruff Stock Ride

Let’s dive right in!

🎮 GTA Is A Money Machine

Christmas came early for Grand Theft Auto Fans.

On Monday, Take-Two Interactive released the trailer for its highly anticipated GTA VI.

Set for release in 2025, GTA VI is expected to substantially contribute to Take-Two's revenue, building on the success of GTA V.

GTA V ranks as the second highest-selling video game after Minecraft and has sold over 190M copies since its 2013 debut.

Research from TweakTown has found that since the launch of GTA V in 2013, the GTA franchise has generated over $8.33B in revenue.

In Fiscal Year 2023, GTA products contributed approximately $781M (14.6% of Take-Two Interactive's total net revenue of $5.349B).

This figure includes sales from various GTA V versions, the GTA trilogy remaster, and Grand Theft Auto Online's in-game purchases.

It’s important to note that the actual earnings might be higher due to deferred revenue accounting practices.

🍟 McDonald’s Eyes Further Expansion

McDonald's is planning to open 10,000 new restaurants by the end of 2027, significantly expanding its global presence.

This would bring its global store count to 50,000 within the next four years.

The company presented these growth targets during an investor event, outlining its future sales and expansion plans.

McDonald's is also aiming to increase its loyalty members from the current 150M to 250M by 2027.

The company plans to roll out updates to its burgers in nearly all markets by 2026, with some updates already introduced in the US.

Additionally, McDonald's announced a partnership with Google Cloud to implement generative AI solutions across its restaurants globally.

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🦴 Chewy’s Ruff Stock Ride

The Numbers:

Earnings: 🟢 $0.15 Beats -$0.06 Est.

Revenue: 🔴 $2.74B Misses $2.75B Est.

The Quarter & Future Guidance:

Chewy’s struggles continued after they released their Q3 earnings report.

While the company outpaced profit expectations for this quarter, its announcement of lower-than-expected guidance for the January quarter and a decrease in its full-year revenue outlook disgruntled investors.

For the January quarter, Chewy estimates sales to be between $2.78B - $2.8B, a 3% increase but still below the expected $2.93B.

The company has revised its full-year revenue forecast to $11.08B - $11.1B, down from the previously projected range of $11.15B - $11.35B, while maintaining a 3% adjusted EBITDA margin.

Despite expressing confidence in market share growth and profitability, Chewy acknowledges that its guidance is influenced by widespread macroeconomic pressures, noting fluctuating sales trends around Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Notable Companies Reporting Earnings Next Week:

• Monday:

  • Oracle $ORCL, Caseys General Stores $CASY

• Tuesday:

  • Johnson Controls Internationals $JCI

• Wednesday:

  • Adobe $ADBE, Nordson $NDSN

• Thursday:

  • Costco $COST, Lennar $LEN

• Friday:

  • Darden Restaurants $DRI

All of the companies that are reporting earnings next week can be viewed here.

Buys

• National Storage Affiliates ($NSA)

  • Insider: Arlen Nordhagen (Vice Chairperson)

    • # of Shares Purchased: 10,000

    • $ Amount: $359,200

    • SEC Forms: [1]

Sells

• Unitedhealth Group ($UNH)

  • Insider: Stephen Hemsley (Director)

    • # of Shares Sold: 66,081

    • $ Amount: $36,370,196

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• Meta Platforms ($META)

  • Insider: Mark Zuckerberg (COB & CEO)

    • # of Shares Sold: 112,036

    • $ Amount: $35,798,199

    • SEC Forms: [1], [2], [3], [4]

• Warner Music Group ($WMG)

  • Insider: Max Lousada (CEO, Recorded Music)

    • # of Shares Sold: 869,008

    • $ Amount: $28,990,107

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• Salesforce ($CRM)

  • Insider: Brian Millham (President & COO)

    • # of Shares Sold: 106,704

    • $ Amount: $27,420,196

    • SEC Forms: [1]

  • Insider: Marc Benioff (Chair & CEO)

    • # of Shares Sold: 60,000

    • $ Amount: $15,173,712

    • SEC Forms: [1], [2], [3], [4]

• Celsius Holdings ($CELH)

  • Insider: John Fieldly (CEO)

    • # of Shares Sold: 286,158

    • $ Amount: $14,997,541

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• MongoDB ($MDB)

  • Insider: Dev Ittycheria (President & CEO)

    • # of Shares Sold: 33,000

    • $ Amount: $13,811,148

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• Palo Alto Networks ($PANW)

  • Insider: Lee Klarich (EVP, Chief Product Officer)

    • # of Shares Sold: 45,000

    • $ Amount: $12,896,492

    • SEC Forms: [1]

  • Insider: Nir Zuk (EVP, Chief Technology Officer)

    • # of Shares Sold: 36,000

    • $ Amount: $10,601,943

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• AMD ($AMD)

  • Insider: Lisa Su (Chair, President & CEO)

    • # of Shares Sold: 75,000

    • $ Amount: $8,829,451

    • SEC Forms: [1]

🤝 Review of the Week