Tech Winners & Losers: Activision

Strong earnings give the video-game stock a lift.
By Priya Ganapati ,

Tech stocks slipped into the red Friday, along with the major market indices, despite strong earnings reports from companies such as

Activision

(ATVI) - Get Report

,

Priceline.com

(PCLN)

and

RealNetworks

(RNWK) - Get Report

.

Shares of video-games publisher Activision added $3.12, or 11.3%, to $30.82 after the company

topped Street expectations

for the fourth quarter and offered a strong outlook for the year.

Activision reported net income of $44.2 million vs. a loss of $14.4 million, the year before. Excluding charges, it posted earnings of 17 cents a share, compared with a loss of 4 cents a share a year ago. Revenue rose 92.8% to $602.5 million, beating Street expectations of 5 cents a share in earnings on revenue of $373.1 million.

For fiscal year 2009, Activision expects net revenue of $2.75 billion and earnings of 72 cents a share. Excluding the impact of deferred revenue for online-enabled games, the company forecast revenue of $3.1 billion for the year. That compares to Street estimates of $2.8 billion in revenue on earnings of $1.18 a share.

Digital infrastructure services company

VeriSign

(VRSN) - Get Report

was up $1.43, or 3.9%, to $38.22 after its first-quarter results

beat analysts' estimates

. VeriSign guided revenue from its core businesses in the current quarter in the range of $228 million to $233 million, in line with Street estimates of $228.1 million.

Sprint Nextel

(S) - Get Report

continued to gain on speculation of a buyout by

Deutsche Telekom

( DT). Shares of Sprint were up 55 cents, or 6.2%, to $9.53.

RealNetworks

(RNWK) - Get Report

was up 92 cents, or 14%, to $7.39 after the company said it expects second-quarter revenue

ahead of Street estimates

. The company also said it will spin off its games division and plans to buy back up to $50 million of stock.

Shares of

Priceline.com

(PCLN)

added $17.22, or 14.4%, to $141.65 after it

beat Street expectations

for the first quarter on the strength of travel bookings and international revenue. It also offered strong outlook for the current quarter.

Quest Software

( QSFT) was up $1.06, or 7.7%, to $14.89 after the company beat estimates for the first quarter, altthough it

posted lower earnings

from a year earlier. Revenue grew 15% in the quarter to $172.8 million, and was higher than analysts' estimates of $165.2 million, but net income fell 10.7% to $13.3 million. Excluding special items, EPS was 21 cents. Analysts were looking for 19 cents.

Chipmaker

Nvidia

(NVDA) - Get Report

gained 95 cents, or 4.4%, to $22.92 after it

grew its bottom line

33% in the first quarter, although it fell short of Wall Street estimates. But analysts at Stifel Nicolaus and Canaccord Adams upgraded the stock to buy from sell on Friday, on the belief that the stock appears undervalued given that the PC supply chain has improved and the company's manufacturing partners are showing greater stability. This should translate into better demand for Nvidia's products say the analysts.

Cogent Communications

(CCOI) - Get Report

shed $4.52, or 19.9%, to $18.19 after the company missed first-quarter EPS estimates by 3 cents, though revenue was in line with expectations. Cogent reported a loss of 21 cents a share on revenue of $52.1 million.

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