BELLEVUE, Wash.-Investors sent shares of InfoSpace Inc. skyward in after-hours trading after the company reported a jump in third-quarter revenue and painted a rosy portrait for the current quarter.
InfoSpace, which operates Web search sites and provides mobile content, posted $83.2 million in revenue during the period, up 24 percent from last year’s $67.2 million. But the company saw its bottom line decline by 16 percent to $11.3 million, or 32 cents a share, compared with last year’s third-quarter profit of $13.4 million, or 37 cents a share.
Mobile revenue was up 55 percent, from $13.9 million in the third quarter of 2004 to $39 million this year. Wireless content represented 18 percent of InfoSpace’s total revenues during the period.
The results topped analysts’ third-quarter forecasts, and InfoSpace offered a profit forecast for the current quarter in the range of 25 cents to 28 cents per share-nearly doubling previous expectations. The company said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of $84 million to $86 million.
Analysts had mixed reactions to the news. Merriman Curhan Ford and Oppenheimer each downgraded the stock while RBC Capital Markets and Delafield Hambrecht upgraded it.
Shares of InfoSpace rose as high as 21 percent to $26.90 late Tuesday following the report. The stock had settled by mid-day Wednesday, trading on the Nasdaq at $25.37, up 14 percent from Tuesday’s close.
