IGT earnings top estimates on strong sales of slot machines

Analysts on average had projected the company next year to post adjusted earnings of us$ 1.14 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Shares of IGT rose 8 percent in after-hours trade to us$ 13.85 a share from a close of us$ 12.83 a share.

On a conference call with analysts, IGT Chief Executive Patti Hart said the solid quarter and year reflected the strength of its core business as well as the successful leveraging of its us$ 500 million acquisition of Double Down, one of the largest social gaming operations on Facebook. Double Down games are free, but the platform provides revenues through the sale of virtual gaming chips.

IGT said adjusted fourth-quarter earnings per share from continuing operations rose 58 percent to 38 cents. Adjusted income from continuing operations rose 40 percent to us$ 101.9 million. Fourth-quarter revenues rose 17 percent to us$ 631 million.

Analysts on average had forecast the company to post adjusted earnings of 32 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. During the quarter, IGT said its revenues from social gaming was us$ 35.8 million, up 20 percent sequentially from the third quarter, primarily driven by an increase in both daily active users and bookings per daily active user.

IGT has also been embedding the DoubleDown Casino application on the websites of casino operators that use its slot machines. During the fourth quarter, IGT said daily active users of its social gaming products totaled 1.4 million while the number of monthly users totaled 5.1 million.

The average user spent 28 cents per day on the DoubleDown site, which was 8 percent higher than the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, IGT sold 8,500 replacement slot machines, an increase of 67 percent.