Activision Blizzard Stock is down. A director has just made a huge purchase

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Activision Blizzard

Shares are in the red since the beginning of the year, but a director of the video game company has seen the green light to buy more shares.

Activision's stock was down about 5% to $ 44.24 on Friday afternoon, after a 26% drop in 2018. Activision game sales were blunted by the success of Fortnite, a free game that has been so successful that Our Wall Street Journal colleagues describe this phenomenon as "being hooked on American youth." Activision announced a disappointing fourth quarter in February, posting forecasts that fell short of analysts' expectations.

Peter Nolan, director of Activision, senior advisor to venture capital giant Leonard Green & Partners L.P., moved in. He paid $ 4.3 million per 100,000 Activision shares Tuesday, an average price of $ 42.95 the action. According to a form filed by Nolan with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it now owns 107,455 Activision shares, 1,638 restricted stock units and 54,792 additional Activision shares through a trust.

This was the largest purchase of Activision shares in the open market by an insider of the company since at least July 2008, according to S & P Capital IQ.

Activision did not immediately respond to a request to make Nolan available for comment.

Nolan purchased the last day of Activision shares on August 16, when it paid $ 795,842 for 20,000 shares, for an average price per share of $ 39.79.

Write to Ed Lin at [email protected] and follow @BarronsEdLin.