ZNGA Up 7%: Q4 Beats, Q1 View Light; Filed Casino Papers in Nevada

Online video game maker Zynga (ZNGA) this afternoon reported Q4 revenue that topped analysts’ estimates, and a surprise profit where the Street had been expecting a net loss per share.

Revenue in the three months ended in three months ended in December rose to $311 million, yielding EPS of a penny per share.

Analysts had been modeling $250 million and a 3-cent loss per share, according to FactSet.

CEO Mark Pincus said the “biggest highlight” of the quarter was the release of “FarmVille2,” its online social strategy game.

The company’s “daily active users” rose by 3%, year over year, to 56 million. Monthly active users were up 24%, year over year, at 298 million.

For the current quarter, the company sees revenue of $255 million to $265 million. FactSet lists the Street consensus as $268 million. The company sees a net loss of 5 cents to 4 cents, worse than the Street’s 1-cent loss estimate.

Zynga stock is up 18 cents, or almost 7%, at $2.92.

Zynga management will host a conference call with analysts at 5 pm, Eastern time, and you can catch the webcast of it here.

Update: During the call this evening, CFO David Wehner addressed the company’s planned push into online gambling, saying Zynga has applied to the State of Nevada to determine its “suitability” to have a casino license:

Another revenue stream we are focused on building is real money gaming. An area we have made significant progress in over the past few months. In Q4 we signed a partnership with B1 party to offer real money gaming in the UK. We believe this is a great opportunity to offer our players a high-quality, real money gaming experience. We remain on track to deliver our first real money gaming products in the UK in the first half of 2013. Together with B1 party we’ll offer poker and casino games under the Zynga plus casino and Zynga plus bland and rolling out these programs across a range of platforms in the UK, the web, download, Facebook and mobile. In addition we filed an application for a preliminary finding of suitability with the Nevada gaming control board in December. A small first step towards participating in the US online real money gaming market. These are all steps moving us towards our long-term vision in real money games.

The shares are up 20 cents, over 7%, at $2.94.

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