Activision Blizzard (ATVI) Shares Rise With Earnings Report

Although its 4th quarter loss grew due to one time charges, video game producer Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) easily beat Wall Street expectations.

Shares of Activision Blizzard, Inc rose more than 5% in after hours trading when the company released its earnings report.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Activision Blizzard reported a net loss of $286 million, or 23 cents per share, compared with a loss of $72 million, or 5 cents per share, for the same quarter a year ago.

Excluding one time charges, Activision Blizzard said it would have earned 49 cents per share for the quarter.

While net revenue fell 5% to $1.56 billion, the company said that excluding deferred revenue from the sale of game titles, would have resulted in revenue of $2.5 billion for the quarter.

A Thomson Reuters poll of analysts showed the consensus estimate to be earnings of 44 cents per share on revenue of $2.23 billion.

"The outlook was below consensus, but I think investors already dialed that in ahead of time," said Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian.

Sebastian compared investors reception of Activision Blizzard's earnings report with that of chief rival Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq: ERTS), which dissapointed investors when it failed to meet financial targets on Monday.

"Activision has a history of being conservative and beating, compared to EA, which has a track record of missing expectations," Sebastian said.