Coinstar Proves Its Metal

Coinstar(CSTR Quote) shares were up Friday after the company announced a fourth-quarter profit of $4.2 million and forecast first-quarter revenue above Wall Street's predictions.

Coinstar reported the following for its quarter ending Dec. 31, 2008:

Revenue of $261 million

Earnings before the deduction of interest, tax and amortization expenses (EBITDA) of $45.5 million

Free cash flow of $6.5 million

Net income of $4.2 million

For the full year, Coinstar reported:

Revenue of $911.9 million

EBITDA of $159.9 million

Free cash flow of $0.4 million

Net income of $14.1 million

Coinstar forecast first-quarter revenue of $260 million to $270 million, or 4 cents to 10 cents per share, assuming it closes its acquisition of Redbox Automated Retail this month. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had predicted profit of 18 cents per share on revenue of $247.6 million.

The coin-machine maker lifted full-year revenue outlook to between $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion, up from its previous forecast of $1 billion.

"The company's DVD kiosk and coin processing product lines both had record years, while money transfer and entertainment revenues were adversely affected by the slowing and unprecedented economic environment," said CEO Dave Cole in a news release.

Shares of Coinstar, which competes with Cash Technologies(TQ Quote) , were rising 23% to $27.81 in recent trading.