January NPD sales down 19% on normalized basis, says Piper Jaffray

Piper Jaffray notes that NPD software sales in January grew 1% year-over-year given an extra week in the retail calendar. Consensus had been expecting down 4%, Piper says. On an apples-to-apples basis, NPD sales in January declined 19% year-over-year. The firm says it is encouraged to see that Activision (ATVI) and Take-Two (TTWO) continued to gain market share into January. Piper reiterates Overweight ratings on Activision, Take-Two, and Gamestop (GME).