The Ubisoft share fell more than 11% Friday at the Paris Stock Exchange, propelled by an increase in the profitability targets of the video game publisher for the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
At 10:40 am (5:40 am, Montreal time), the stock rose 11.40% to 32.34 euros, in a market down 0.67%.
Ubisoft publishes a "good performance", with a turnover in the first half "significantly higher than our expectation and consensus," said broker Gilbert Dupont.
The "performance of digital sales (...) had a direct impact on the growth of the gross margin of the group," he also noted. "The results in the first half are above expectations," said a Paris analyst.
Ubisoft reduced its net loss to 66.1 million euros in the first half of its staggered fiscal year, against 75.2 million a year earlier, during a period without major game launches, concentrated towards the end of the year, year.
The group also released Thursday evening sales of 281.4 million euros over the half-year, up 36%. Gross margin reached 80.5% of sales in the first half, down from 74.4% a year earlier.
After an encouraging first half in terms of profitability, the group increased its forecast of operating income (non-IFRS) for the full year 2016/17 from 230 to 250 million euros, compared with 230 million originally targeted.
The group, on the other hand, lowered its sales target between 1.610 and 1.670 billion euros, compared to approximately 1.7 billion originally planned. For Gilbert Dupont, the reduction of this objective is "compensated by the improvement of the profitability".
