King Digital Entertainment (KING) Stock Rises on Earnings Beat
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- King Digital Entertainment (KING) stock is up 0.17% to $17.79 in mid-morning trading on Thursday after the company reported financial results that surpassed estimates for the third quarter of 2015.
After the market close on Wednesday, the mobile gaming company reported earnings of 45 cents per share on $479.71 million in revenue for the quarter ended September 30.
Analysts had estimated earnings of 38 cents per share on $459.29 million in revenue.
Monthly active users were down 4% year-over-year to 474 million, while daily active users declined 3% to 133 million, as the company's popular Candy Crush Saga game experienced slower growth.
"Our third quarter 2015 gross bookings exceeded the high end of our guidance range, and for the third consecutive quarter Candy Crush Saga and Candy Crush Soda Saga ranked within the top 5 grossing games in the Apple (AAPL) App Store and Google (GOOGL) Play Store in the U.S.," CEO Riccardo Zacconi said in a statement.
On Monday, King Digital Entertainment agreed to be acquired by Activision Blizzard (ATVI) in a $5.9 billion transaction.
King Digital Entertainment shareholders will receive $18 per share if they approve the deal, which is expected to close by March 2016.
Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates KING DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT as a Hold with a ratings score of C-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:
We rate KING DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT (KING) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed - some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its notable return on equity, solid stock price performance and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including unimpressive growth in net income and weak operating cash flow.
You can view the full analysis from the report here: KING
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