Analyst firm gives Nintendo ‘buy’ rating, claims missed earnings is ‘good news’

Nintendo's stock shares have dropped 14.9 percent since the company lowered its expectations for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014. While most analysts have been harsh in their criticism towards the company, analyst first Jefferies remains optimistic, giving Big-N a "buy" rating. What's more, the firm calls Nintendo's earnings miss "good news" as it'll convince the platform holder to bring its valuable franchises to mobile devices — despite Nintendo president Satoru Iwata already shooting down the idea.

"Nintendo still has an ace up its sleeve," Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal said. "Ironically, that [the earnings miss] is good news as this will force a strategic change enabling it to offer its games (Mario, etc.) on mobile-platforms."

"While almost all game companies now offer games on app-stores, Nintendo has so far ignored this paradigm shift, despite having some of the most valuable 'Entertainment Properties' (EP) in the game-industry," he added.

Iwata recently addressed the notion of bringing Nintendo's valuable franchises to mobile devices. While he believes smartphone and mobile device integration is key to Nintendo's future, he doesn't believe Mario should be on anything other than Nintendo gaming platforms. While I'd love to be able to play a Mario game on my phone, I understand his hesitance as it could cut into the 3DS handheld market.

Do you think Nintendo should offer its franchises on smartphones and other iOS/Android mobile devices? Personally, I think Nintendo should just come out with its own smartphone.