Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Giant Interactive (GA) have fallen 9% today after the Chinese online-gaming company reported moderate growth in its latest quarter, but offered muted guidance for the upcoming third quarter.
So what: Giant Interactive's revenue rose 11% year over year to $95.8 million, but this came in a hair beneath Wall Street's expectations of $95.9 million. The company's earnings of $0.25 per share beat Wall Street's $0.23 consensus by $0.02. Giant's user base has not grown particularly rapidly, however -- the company's active paid accounts roster is up 5% year over year to 2.3 million, but the average number of concurrently active users rose to 702,000, a 2.5% year-over-year increase.
Looking ahead, Giant now expects third-quarter revenue to be "flat to moderately up" as compared to the just-reported quarter, which would put it in the $96 million range, depending on what the company means by "moderately."
Now what: Giant is still up significantly over the past year, even after today's drop. Shareholders have enjoyed a 65% gain for the prior 52 weeks, and the company's P/E remains barely in double-digit territory. Giant also announced a semi-annual dividend of $0.23 per share, which will be payable to shareholders of record in December. This company might not be growing as quickly as some, but it seems stable enough to provide consistent dividend-driven gains, at the least.
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