Activision Blizzard beats 4Q earnings expectations, misses revenue forecasts

Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $361 million.

The Santa Monica, California-based company said it had profit of 49 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and stock option expense, were 94 cents per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 88 cents per share.

The maker of "Call of Duty" and other video games posted revenue of $2.21 billion in the period, which did not meet Street forecasts. Analysts expected $2.24 billion, according to Zacks.

For the year, the company reported profit of $835 million, or $1.13 per share. Revenue was reported as $4.81 billion.

For the current quarter ending in March, Activision Blizzard expects its per-share earnings to be 5 cents.

The company said it expects revenue in the range of $640 million for the fiscal first quarter. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected revenue of $804.6 million.

Activision Blizzard expects full-year earnings to be $1.15 per share, with revenue expected to be $4.4 billion.

Activision Blizzard shares have climbed slightly more than 8 percent since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $21.82, a climb of 29 percent in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on ATVI at http://www.zacks.com/ap/ATVI

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Keywords: Activision Blizzard, Earnings Report