Unity Software Inc. shares fell in the extended session Wednesday after the company produced on-par results but a little less revenue than Wall Street would have liked.
Unity
U,
shares dropped as much as 14% after hours, following a 9.5% decline to close the regular session at $21.50. The stock is down 85% for the year to date, compared with a 21% decline by the S&P 500 index
SPX,
and a 34% drop by the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
Unity, which produces videogame-engine software that competes with Epic Games Inc.’s Unreal Engine and helps developers monetize their games, reported a third-quarter loss of $253.7 million, or 84 cents a share, compared with $155.1 million, or 41 cents a share, in the year-ago period. The adjusted loss, which excludes stock-based compensation expenses and other items, was 14 cents a share, compared with a loss of 3 cents a share in the year-ago period.
Revenue rose to $322.9 million from $286.3 million in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast a loss of 15 cents a share on revenue of $326.1 million, based on Unity’s third-quarter revenue forecast of $315 million to $335 million.
Unity forecast fourth-quarter revenue between $425 million and $445 million, and hiked its full-year revenue forecast to a range between $1.37 billion and $1.39 billion. Last quarter, Unity trimmed its full-year revenue-forecast range to between $1.3 billion and $1.35 billion, from a previous $1.35 billion to $1.43 billion range.
Analysts had estimated a loss of a penny a share on revenue of $377.8 million for the fourth quarter, and a loss of 42 cents a share on revenue of $1.31 billion for the year.
Having met its own forecasts, Unity Chief Financial Officer Luis Visoso said “we are taking a prudent approach in the fourth quarter, given the current macroeconomic environment.”
“We have carefully managed costs this year, and will drive more efficiencies next year, as we continue to capture the large opportunity in front of us,” said Visoso.
Also, having just closed on Monday on the $4.4 billion acquisition of IronSource, Unity Chief Executive John Riccitiello welcomed the newly acquired company.
“We welcome everyone at IronSource to Unity as we build a transformational end-to-end platform that will create value for creators and our shareholders,” Riccitiello said in a statement. “We believe that the combination positions us for success in today’s challenging ad market, and for when markets begin their rebound.”
In mid-September, app monetization company Applovin Inc.
APP,
abandoned its $20 billion in cash and stock to acquire Unity. Applovin shares fell under pressure after the bell Wednesday when the company’s results and outlook didn’t meet Street expectations.
It’s been six months since Unity’s disclosure that ad-targeting tools in its Operate Solutions business contained a flaw — the same tools that had been credited with finding a workaround to Apple Inc.’s
AAPL,
opt-out of using Identifier for Advertisers, or IDFA — that was “behind” the company, according to Ingrid Lestiyo, head of Operate Solutions, last quarter.
