Activision Tops Expectations

The video game-software company also guides higher but shares slip in after-hours trading.

Author:: Troy Wolverton
Publish date:: Jul 22, 2004 9:43 AM EDT

Updated from July 21

Activision

topped analysts' earnings expectations and raised its forward guidance after the close Wednesday, citing strong results of its

Shrek

and

Spiderman 2

titles.

But that outlook might not have been good enough to appease investors. Activision shares dropped 47 cents, or 3.2%, to $14.44 Thursday morning.

The video-game software company earned $11.96 million, or 8 cents a share, in its fiscal first quarter. In the same quarter a year ago, the company posted earnings of $4.16 million, or 3 cents a share.

Activision's revenue jumped 33% year over year to $211.28 million.

The results trounced Wall Street's estimates and the company's own guidance. Analysts had been expecting earnings of 5 cents a share on $188.76 million in revenue, according to Thomson First Call. In May, Activision forecast a profit of 4 cents a share on sales of $185 million.

The company expects its good times to continue to roll in the rest of its fiscal year. In its fiscal second quarter, Activision expects to earn 8 cents a share on $254 million in sales. For its full fiscal year, the company projected earnings of 69 cents a share on sales of $1.1 billion.

The guidance, which is up from the company's previous forecasts, is now in line with analysts' earnings expectations. Wall Street had predicted second-quarter earnings of 8 cents a share on $235.98 in sales and full-year earnings of 69 cents a share on $1.08 billion in sales.