Activision Blizzard Earnings Beat Expectations
Activision Blizzard reported quarterly earnings and revenue Thursday that exceeded analysts' expectations on strong holiday sales of its popular video games.
The world's largest videogame maker's shares popped higher in after-hours trading following the news. What is Activision Blizzard's stock doing now? (Click here for the latest after-hours quotes.)
Earnings excluding items rose to 78 cents per share from 62 cents a share in the year-earlier period .
Revenue improved nearly 8 percent to $2.60 billion from $2.41 billion a year ago.
The game maker credited results to strong sales of popular titles including "Call of Duty: Black Ops 2." That game, a press release said, made $1 billion within its first 15 days on the market.
Net income climbed to $354 million from $99 million in the quarter last year.
Analysts had expected the company to report earnings excluding items of 72 cents a share on $2.44 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.
For the first quarter, the company expects to post earnings excluding items of 10 cents a share on $1.16 billion in revenue.
