Earnings

'Grand Theft Auto' publisher Take-Two ups full-year profit forecast

A window display advertises Grand Theft Auto IV April 28, 2008 in New York City.
Getty Images

Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software raised its revenue and profit forecast for the full year and reported better-than-expected quarterly results, helped by the success of its "Grand Theft Auto V" game for new consoles.

Shares of Take-Two Interactive, which also publishes "BioShock Infinite," were up 6 percent at $31.70 in extended trading on Tuesday.

The latest console and PC versions of "Grand Theft Auto V", an action-adventure game in which players roam an urban landscape modeled on Los Angeles, was the second-most sold title in the United States last year, data research firm NPD said.

Take-Two said it now expects adjusted revenue of $1.65 billion-$1.70 billion for the year ending March 31, up from its previous forecast of $1.4 billion-$1.5 billion.

It also raised its adjusted profit per share forecast for the year to $1.65-$1.75 from $1.05-$1.30.

Analysts on average were expecting adjusted revenue of $1.52 billion and an adjusted profit of $1.38 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales from the "Grand Theft Auto" series, basketball game "NBA 2K15" and the "Borderlands" first-person shooter game franchise raked in most of the revenue for Take-Two in the third quarter ended Dec. 31.

Adjusted revenue jumped 24.3 percent to $954 million, surpassing analysts' average estimate of $797.7 million.

Adjusted net income rose to $211.6 million, or $1.87 per share, for the third quarter ended Dec. 31, from $210.7 million, or $1.70 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts expected a profit of $1.52 per share.