Macrovision takes off on earnings, upgrade

Macrovision shares moved up 5 13/16, or 10 percent, to 61 13/16 Tuesday after topping analysts' estimates in its first quarter and receiving an upgrade from Chase H&Q.

On Monday, Macrovision (Nasdaq: MVSN) posted a first-quarter profit of $4.8 million, or 12 cents a share, on sales of $12.7 million.

A survey of analysts by First Call Corp. predicted it would earn 8 cents a share in the quarter.

On Tuesday, Chase H&Q bumped the stock from a "buy" recommendation to a "strong buy."

Macrovision designs, develops and markets video security technologies and products that provide copy protection and video scrambling for motion pictures and other video materials.

The $12.7 million in sales marks a 78 percent improvement from the year-ago quarter when it made $1.9 million, or 89 cents a share, on sales of $7.2 million.

"We're very pleased with our first quarter results," said CFO Ian Halifax in a prepared release. "Our revenues benefited from continued strong demand for both our DVD and consumer multimedia software copy protection products."

Macrovision's stock has been an outstanding performer in the past year, splitting 2-for-1 twice since August.

Its shares peaked at 94 3/4 in March after trading at a low of 10 13/16 in June.

All five analysts tracking the stock rate it either a "buy" or "strong buy."