Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Activision Shares Up on Third-Quarter Beat

Activision Blizzard(ATVI) shares rallied in extended trading on Tuesday after the company topped Wall Street expectations for its third-quarter results and issued a strong outlook for the holiday season.

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The video game publisher, which also released the newest title in its Call of Duty franchise dubbed Modern Warfare 3 on Tuesday, posted adjusted earnings of $87 million, or 7 cents per share, down from $148 million, or 12 cents a share, during the same period last year. Adjusted revenue dropped 27% year-over-year to $627 million. Analysts expected Activision to report earnings of 2 cents per share on revenue of $588.4 million.The stock was last quoted at $14.20, up 2%, on after-hours volume of more than 540,000, according to Nasdaq.com. Activision also said it expects adjusted earnings of 55 cents per share and revenue of $2.2 billion during the fourth quarter, which will take into account sales of its Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 title. That view compares to Wall Street's current consensus estimate for earnings of 53 cents a share in the December-ending quarter on revenue of $2.1 billion. Last year's Call of Duty: Black Ops game was the biggest video game release of all-time, selling 5.6 million copies on its first day of release and netting $360 million.Sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 could surpass 6 million on its first day, Sterne Ageee analyst Arvind Bhatia predicted. Pre-orders for Modern Warfare 3 are "well ahead" of those from Black Ops, CEO Bobby Kotick said during the company's earnings call. --.>To submit a news tip, send an email to: tips@thestreet.com.

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