GameStop posts record $1.6B quarter

Sometimes one's best just isn't good enough. Specialty retailer GameStop today reported its fiscal results for the 13 weeks ended November 3, a period in which it launched an unprecedented nationwide ad campaign. And although the results set a new third-quarter record for the company, investors unloaded the stock in droves.

For the quarter, GameStop posted $1.6 billion in sales, 59 percent more than in last year's third quarter. Its net profit saw even more dramatic growth, rising 283 percent to $52 million. The company even notched up its full-year guidance as a result of the numbers, with projected earnings per share moving from $1.61 to $1.63.

Despite the marked improvement, investors had expected guidance for the company's fourth quarter to be moved upward more significantly. After closing Monday's trading at $52.99, shares of GameStop fell as low as $47.46 today before recovering to close down nearly 2 percent at $51.01. The trading volume for GameStop stock was more than four times higher than normal at 11.6 million shares.

Saying he was "somewhat baffled" by the market's response to GameStop's results, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities told investors he thought the results were outstanding, and added that the company is well positioned to grow its earnings per share by 25 percent over the next two years.

As one might expect, given recent figures provided by the NPD Group, the best-selling games of the quarter for GameStop were Halo 3, Madden NFL 08, Guitar Hero III, BioShock, and Wii Play.