Activision Blizzard Shares Rise on Better than Expected Q3 Results (ATVI)

Shares of Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI), a Santa Monica, California-based video game publisher, rose sharply in trading today after the company reported better than expected third-quarter financial results and gave a strong outlook for the upcoming holiday season. Activision also released Modern Warfare 3, the latest title in its Call of Duty franchise.

Activision Blizzard shares rose to a new 52-week high of $14.40 in trading today. The stock ended the day 1.38% higher at $13.93 on above average volume of 26.35 million. Activision Blizzard shares are up 11.98% this year.

For the third quarter, Activision today reported adjusted profit of $87 million, or $0.07 per share, compared with $148 million, or $0.12 per share reported for the same period in the previous year. The company’s adjusted revenue fell 27% on a year-over-year basis to $627 million. Analysts were expecting Activision Blizzard to report adjusted profit of $0.02 per share and revenue of $588.4 million. The company’s GAAP net revenues from digital channels were a record $427 million in the third quarter.

For the fourth quarter of 2011, the company expects adjusted earnings of $0.55 per share and revenue of $2.2 billion. Analysts expect the company’s fourth-quarter earnings and revenue to come in at $0.53 per share and $2.1 billion, respectively.

Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, said that the company continues to strengthen its position as the global leader in interactive entertainment and broadening of the company’s audiences is confirmation that games are becoming as important as film and television as a mass-market form of entertainment.

Looking ahead to 2012, Kotick said that the company has a strong product pipeline which features a minimum of two highly-anticipated new titles from Blizzard Entertainment. As a result, the company expects to deliver another year of profitable growth, Kotick added.

Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.