King Digital Results Crush Estimates; Stock Gains 19%

(RTTNews) - Gaming company King Digital Entertainment plc (KING) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter net earnings of $140.6 million or $0.44 per share compared with $159.2 million or $0.50 per share last year.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.57 per share compared with $0.64 per share a year ago.

Revenues for the quarter were $545.6 million compared with $601.7 million in the prior year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.47 per share on revenues of $519 million for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Gross bookings for the quarter were $586 million, representing a sequential increase of 8%, and a year over year decrease of 7%, the company said.

King expects gross bookings of $575 million to $600 million in the first quarter 2015. It expects the general shape of quarterly gross bookings in 2015 to be similar to 2014, with the second and third quarters being softer periods than the first and fourth.

The company's board declared a special dividend to shareholders of $0.94 per share.

King is an interactive entertainment company that develops and publishes casual games on Web and mobile platforms.

KING closed Thursday at $14.74, up $0.60 or 4.24%, on a volume of 6.5 million shares on the NYSE. In after hours, the stock jumped $2.76 or 18.72% at $17.50.