If you had turned your back on Shanda Interactive (NASDAQ:SNDA) when it spooked the market a year ago with tumbling profitability and shifting some games to a free model, maybe you should turn around. Growth is back on Shanda's menu, and the company has obliterated analyst profit targets over each of the last three quarters.
The online gaming pioneer in China was solid in its fourth-quarter report last night. Revenues soared 30.5% higher to hit $60.3 million. Earnings clocked in at $0.42 per ADS, or $0.30 per ADS after we back out a gain on Shanda's sale of SINA (NASDAQ:SINA) stock.
There was a dip, both sequential and year-over-year, in the company's casual games business, but don't break a sweat over that. Casual games make up just 15% of the company's revenues now.
It's the massive multiplayer online fantasy games that put Shanda on the map, and that's where the company continues to thrive. Hit titles like Woool and Mir 2 continue to attract gamers. Shanda won't let the gameplay get stale -- it's perpetually introducing expansion packs that help enhance the role-playing experience.
Investors are noticing the improvement. Shares of Shanda have nearly doubled since bottoming out back in April. That return finds Shanda's stock outperforming rivals NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES) and The9 (NASDAQ:NCTY).
Western powerhouses are also noticing. Last year, Shanda announced that it would be working with Disney (NYSE:DIS) on licensed games. It also teamed up with Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) for digital applications on its EZ Pod home computer application. The relationships haven't led to material improvement. Shanda didn't mention any Disney titles during last night's call, and EZ Pod sales have been declining.
That's fine. Let the pessimists chase those red herrings. Shanda really is back, and it's evident on the top and bottom lines.
Shanda -- like NetEase -- is a Rule Breakers recommendation. Want to learn more about NetEase, Shanda, and the other promising growth stock picks the newsletter has been recommending? Go for a free trial subscription to explore the newsletter service for the next 30 days. SINA and Disney have been singled out to Motley Fool Stock Advisor readers.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has been a fan of China's high-margin online stocks for a long time. He does own shares in Disney. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
