Liberate Technologies topped Street estimates in its fourth quarter Thursday when it posted a loss of $11.4 million, or 13 cents a share, on sales of $9.1 million.
Analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. predicted Liberate (Nasdaq: LBRT) would lose 20 cents a share in the quarter.
Ahead of the earnings report, Liberate closed off 1 45/64 to 23 55/64.
The $9.1 million in sales marks a 78 percent improvement from the year-ago quarter when it lost $9.5 million, or 16 cents a share, on sales of $5.1 million.
"We are rapidly moving to the deployment phases of our customer base, as we saw this quarter with Telewest and Insight Communications," said CEO Mitchell Kertzman in a prepared release. "We also continued to strengthen the Liberate platform by completing two strategic acquisitions, and forging partnerships with significant industry leading players."
Including all charges, Liberate posted a loss of $37 million, or 41 cents a share, in the quarter.
For the year, Liberate lost $80.8 million, or $1.14 a share, on sales of $28 million, a 62 percent jump from fiscal 1999 when it lost $43.3 million, or 52 cents a share, on sales of $17.3 million.
Last quarter, it posted a loss of $12.1 million, or 14 cents a share, on sales of $7.5 million.
Its shares have fallen into a slump after its January stock split.
The stock peaked at 148 1/2 in December after bottoming out at 7 3/16 in August.
All six analysts following the stock rate it either a "buy" or "strong buy."
First Call Corp. consensus expects it to lose 92 cents a share in fiscal 2001.
Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion.