What: Shares of RealD (NYSE: RLD) jumped 10% early Thursday, then settled to close up around 8% after the 3-D movie visual technology specialist released better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results.
So what: Quarterly revenue came in at $40.6 million, which translated to a net loss of $5 million, or $0.10 per share. That may sound bad, but analysts were looking for a wider net loss of $0.23 per share on sales of just $33.66 million.
Notably, RealD's China license revenue grew 81% year over year in 2014, and doubled as a percentage of overall sales. RealD also grew adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization by 12% over last year, and generated free cash flow of $13 million in fiscal 2014.
Now what: RealD still has plenty of work to do in increasing the penetration of high-quality 3-D films, and the stock still doesn't look particularly cheap trading around 60 times next year's estimated earnings. But that's also not entirely uncommon for a company on the cusp of sustained profitability, and investors are rightly encouraged that RealD is still moving in the right direction. As a result, I won't be surprised if RealD continues rewarding patient, long-term shareholders going forward, although I'm not personally anxious to buy shares today,.
