\nBy HOWARD STUTZ
\n\tLAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
\n\tSlot machine maker International Game Technology grew profits and revenue in the first quarter despite what company officials described as \u201cmarket challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIGT, which has headquarters in both Las Vegas and Reno, said Thursday its net income for the quarter ended Dec. 31 increased 21 percent to $79.2 million, compared with $65.3 million in the same quarter a year ago. Earnings per share were 31 cents, up from 24 cents per share a year earlier.<\/p>\n
\tOverall company revenue for IGT rose 2.1 percent to $541.2 million from $530.3 million. The revenue increase was IGT\u2019s lowest in the past four quarters.<\/p>\n
\tIGT said slot machine sales to casinos in the United States and Canada and increased play on the company\u2019s social games on the Internet attributed to the revenue increase.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIn our fiscal first quarter we expanded revenue while maintaining strong operating income and cash flows despite market challenges,\u201d IGT CEO Patti Hart said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\tHart added that the company would continue to focus on game content and distribution and would continue to improve cost-efficiency initiatives.<\/p>\n
\tIn a statement, IGT warned investors that the company\u2019s profits could drop over the next few quarters if declining gaming revenue trends continue in several markets. IGT said several \u201cacquisition-related expenses\u201d stemming from the 2012 purchase of DoubleDown will also kick in during the year.<\/p>\n
\tIn a note to investors before the company released results, Eilers Research founder Todd Eilers said he thought the company\u2019s results \u201ccould be a little light.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tEilers said sales of games into the Canadian video lottery terminal markets were beginning to slow while \u201cweather issues\u201d and competition could pressure several of the company\u2019s divisions.<\/p>\n
\tIGT said slot machine sales revenue increased 4 percent in the quarter to $243.6 million. Of that total, sales to casinos in the United States and Canada increased 7 percent to $170 million.<\/p>\n
\tIn the company\u2019s interactive division, overall revenue increased 41 percent to $74.6 million while social gaming, which includes the company\u2019s DoubleDown Casino, increased 57 percent to $64.8 million.<\/p>\n
\tIGT said DoubleDown had more than 1.7 million average daily users in the quarter, 17 percent more that in the 2013 first quarter. Players spent on average 42 cents per day on DoubleDown to buy virtual gaming tokens, an increase of 35 percent from a year ago.<\/p>\n
\tUnion Gaming Group analyst Robert Shore noted that while results from IGT\u2019s interactive division were growing \u201cit is still the smallest of IGT\u2019s three main segments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tShore said IGT and other slot machine manufacturers would benefit from a few casino openings in 2014, notably SLS Las Vegas (formerly the Sahara), racetrack casinos in Ohio, and the Horseshoe Casino Baltimore.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe don\u2019t expect these openings to move the needle much,\u201d Shore said.<\/p>\n
\tHe also said IGT would be pressured by \u201cthe resurgence\u201d in Aristocrat Technologies and WMS Industries and the emergence of MultiMedia Games. He said the slot machine providers could put \u201cincreased pressure on the leading companies in terms of floor space.\u201d<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By HOWARD STUTZ LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL Slot machine maker International Game Technology grew profits and revenue in the first quarter despite what company officials described as \u201cmarket challenges.\u201d IGT, which has headquarters in both Las Vegas and Reno, said Thursday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}