GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) _ GameStop Corp. (GME) on Tuesday reported a loss of $83.4 million in its fiscal third quarter.
The Grapevine, Texas-based company said it had a loss of $1.02 per share. Losses, adjusted for non-recurring costs and asset impairment costs, came to 49 cents per share.
The results fell short of Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 6 cents per share.
The video game retailer posted revenue of $1.44 billion in the period, also missing Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.61 billion.
GameStop expects full-year earnings in the range of 10 cents to 20 cents per share.
“Our third quarter results continue to reflect the prevailing industry trends, most notably the unprecedented decline in new hardware sales seen across the market as the current generation of gaming consoles reach the end of their lifecycle and consumers delay their spending in anticipation of new hardware releases,” said George Sherman, GameStop CEO. “With console makers set to introduce new and innovative gaming consoles late next year, we anticipate this trend to continue until the fourth quarter of 2020. Despite the current top-line trends, we are pleased with the continued strong progress that we are making against our strategic initiatives as we transform GameStop for the future. We remain on track to achieve our $200 million annualized operating profit improvement goal, by 2021 and we believe our strategic initiatives will enable to us to achieve our long-term growth and profit objectives as we fully leverage our unique leadership position and brand in the video game space.”
GameStop’s third quarter total global sales decreased 25.7% to $1.4 billion, driven by a consolidated comparable store sales decrease of 23.2%.
New hardware sales decreased 45.8%, reflecting anticipated next generation console launches in 2020.
New software sales decreased 32.6%, with growth in Nintendo Switch software titles more than offset by weaker title launches across other consoles in the quarter compared to last year.
Accessories sales decreased 13.4%.
Pre-owned sales declined 13.3% with declines in hardware and software.
Collectibles sales increased 4.3%, with continued growth in both domestic and international stores.
GameStop shares have decreased 49% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has increased 25%. In the final minutes of trading on Tuesday, shares hit $6.45, a decrease of 51% in the last 12 months.
_____
This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on GME at https://www.zacks.com/ap/GME
Additional reporting by FWBP Staff