How to trade Nintendo shares
Gaming pioneer Nintendo is more than 130 years old, with new products and innovations keeping it at the forefront of the entertainment industry. If you want to trade Nintendo shares, this guide is for you.
You can use derivatives to go long on the company’s share price without owning the underlying stocks. You can read more about our derivative products, namely CFDs, on our handy comparison page. Or, if you’re a complete beginner, you can read more about the difference between trading and investing in this article.
So why is CFD trading so popular?
- It offers more flexibility: you can speculate on rising or falling share prices (go long or short) without having to buy any assets
- It enables you to trade on margin: you can open a position with a small deposit while still getting exposure to the full value of the trade. Note that trading on margin can magnify your profits, but also your losses
- You can hedge your positions: you can hold multiple positions at the same time in an attempt to offset any losses from one position with gains from the other. This could protect you against unfavourable market movements
Trading Nintendo shares
If you want to trade Nintendo shares, you can speculate on the share price using derivatives such as CFDs. You would ‘buy’ if you think the Nintendo share price will go up or ‘sell’ if you think the share price will go down. To buy (go long), follow these easy steps:
- Create an IG trading account or log in to your existing account
- Look for ‘Nintendo’ in the search bar
- Choose your position size
- Click on ‘buy’ in the deal ticket
- Confirm the trade
Shorting Nintendo shares
If you think the Nintendo share price is going down, you can short the stock via CFDs. Follow the steps below to short (sell) Nintendo shares:
- Create an IG trading account or log in to your existing account
- Look for ‘Nintendo’ in the search bar
- Choose your position size
- Choose ‘sell’ in the deal ticket
- Confirm the trade
Understanding Nintendo: a brief history
Nintendo, originally called Nintendo Koppai, was founded as a Japanese playing card company in 1889. The business created and sold cards for more than 40 years before it started dabbling in toy production. In 1933, the first joint venture between Nintendo and a distribution company was established.
Fast-forward a few years to 1962, when Nintendo listed on the Osaka Stock Exchange. Using the newly-injected capital, Nintendo started exploring possibilities including a taxi company, food chain and hotel business – all of which failed. A mere two years later, the playing card business reached its saturation point and Nintendo’s share price took a fall.
In 1966, the company started to develop electronic toys and eight years later Nintendo secured the rights to distribute the first commercially available video game console. Nintendo was gaining popularity until 1983, when a massive influx of competing games and consoles caused the video game market to fall in value.
In the early 90s, Nintendo’s market share was slashed by around 90% when Sega won the favour of consumers – especially in the US. Then, by 1995, Sony introduced the PlayStation and both Nintendo and Sega’s market share were affected.
Many more games and consoles were released between the mid-90s and early 2000s, including the popular Wii console. However, the Nintendo share price remained quite flat. It was only when the company started moving into mobile in 2015 that the share price took off.
Nintendo shares: the basics
Nintendo shares are listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) under the ticker symbol 7974. It also has a secondary listing on the NASDAQ (US Tech 100 with IG).
In recent years, the share price has increased quite drastically – from just over $11 in January 2015, to more than $43 in October 2019. This could be attributed to its announcement in March 2015 to move into mobile gaming, shortly after which the share price jumped by 27%. However, it wasn’t until the launch of Pokémon Go in July 2016 that prices really rocketed, boosting Nintendo’s market capitalisation by around $10 billion.
Nintendo’s success is not only driven by sales, but also by market hype around its products. In June 2019, Nintendo’s share price fell 3.53% after it announced a delay in launching the popular Animal Crossing game. This caused the company to lose an enormous $1 billion in market value.
The company is also pursuing other opportunities, such as movies and an amusement park. Its Super Mario Bros film is said to be released in 2022, and Super Nintendo World theme park will open in Japan in 2020. The aim of these opportunities is to market the brand to a wider audience, but Nintendo will still rely on sales to drive growth.
Nintendo key personnel: who manages the company?
The following people are on Nintendo’s executive team:
| Shuntaro Furukawa | Chief executive officer |
| Doug Bowser | Chief operating officer |
| Steve Singer | Vice President of licensing |
| Nick Chavez | Vice President of sales and marketing |
| Shigeru Miyamoto | Representative director and game designer |
| Shinya Takashi | Senior managing executive officer |
| Ko Shiota | Senior executive officer |
| Satoru Shibata | Senior executive officer |
| Shigeyuki Takahashi | Senior executive officer |
| Satoshi Yamato | Senior executive officer |
| Hirokazu Shinshi | Senior executive officer |
| Hajime Murakami | Executive officer |
| Yoshiaki Koizumi | Executive officer |
What is Nintendo’s business model?
Nintendo’s business model is built on creating and selling consumer electronics and video games. Nintendo designs consoles, games and accessories, including the popular Wii console, as well as Pokémon and Mario games.
Though users can buy games when they purchase a console, they can also download games when they set up their online Nintendo account. This means lower distribution costs for the business. Only compatible, licensed games can be used on a Nintendo console.
Nintendo fundamental analysis: how to analyse the share price
To analyse Nintendo’s share price, you should conduct thorough fundamental analysis. The business’s fundamentals will include various factors that affect its operations, such as financial performance and changes to the executive team. However, you cannot view company information in isolation. You should also investigate the health of the sector in which Nintendo operates and that of the overall economy.
As part of examining the inherent value of Nintendo shares, you can use various metrics. You can use the earnings per share (EPS), price-to-earnings ratio (P/E), the return on equity (ROE) and the dividend yield, among others.
- EPS can help you to establish if the business is profitable. Divide Nintendo’s profit by the number of outstanding shares to calculate its EPS
- P/E ratio defines how much you must spend on shares to make $1 in profit. Divide Nintendo’s market value per share by its EPS to calculate its P/E ratio
- ROE measures how much income the company makes from its assets compared to shareholder investments. Divide Nintendo’s net income by stakeholder equity to calculate its ROE
- Dividend yield depicts annual dividends compared to share price. Divide Nintendo’s dividend amount by the share price and multiply it by 100 to calculate its dividend yield
To accurately analyse Nintendo’s share price, you’ll need more information on fundamental analysis. Find it here.
This information has been prepared by IG, a trading name of IG Limited. In addition to the disclaimer below, the material on this page does not contain a record of our trading prices, or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. IG accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Consequently any person acting on it does so entirely at their own risk. Any research provided does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any specific person who may receive it. It has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such is considered to be a marketing communication. Although we are not specifically constrained from dealing ahead of our recommendations we do not seek to take advantage of them before they are provided to our clients.
CFDs are a leveraged products. CFD trading may not be suitable for everyone and can result in losses that exceed your initial deposit, so please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved.
Discover how to trade the markets
Explore the range of markets you can trade – and learn how they work – with IG Academy's free ’introducing the financial markets’ course.
