Roblox Corp., the video-game platform popular among teenagers, surged by the most in almost nine months after reporting third-quarter bookings and revenue that far exceeded Wall Street’s projections.
Bookings jumped 20% to $839.5 million from a year earlier, the San Mateo, California-based company said Wednesday, surpassing the $822 million that analysts had estimated. The company’s popularity among young adults delivered Roblox $81.1 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, also exceeding expectations.
The earnings beat marks a comeback for a stock that plunged in August after disclosing surprising misses in users and active playing time. An acceleration in advertising revenue and growth in new areas including music and shopping are expected to further fuel Roblox’s sales in the coming years. Meanwhile, the company is turning to artificial intelligence to create more content.
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Shares soared 16% to $40.75 at 9:50 a.m. in New York, heading for the highest close since July.
Roblox is just the latest company to benefit from a resilience in video-game demand. Nintendo Co. surged overnight after raising its annual profit forecast and announcing the development of a live-action film based on The Legend of Zelda franchise. Electronic Arts has also gained since reporting better-than-expected bookings and raising its full-year guidance earnings guidance.
Along with bookings, investors in the gaming company key in on daily active users and hours engaged. Roblox said daily users came to 70.2 million, in line with analysts’ projections. Hours engaged hit 16 billion, up 20% from a year earlier.
Roblox said in a letter to shareholders that growth in the quarter was particularly strong in western Europe and east Asia, even as the US and Canada continued to contribute the most bookings. An overall slowdown in spending improved margins, the company said.
“We have reached a period where we can now moderate the growth rate of both our operating expenses and our capital investments,” Roblox said in its letter. “For the foreseeable future, we expect to target operating costs in aggregate to grow generally at or slower than the rate of bookings growth.”
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