Optimism is building for Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) as analysts anticipate another quarter of strong earnings. The stock is trading in the green ahead of the earnings announcement later in the day Thursday.

The optimism is mainly due to the expected success of "Overwatch" across the three-month period of April through June. Wedbush has doubled its sale expectation to eight million units of the game only last month. Similarly, King's "Candy Crush" games demonstrated continued strength on the AppAnnie charts.

Wedbush analysts, led by Michael Pachter, said, "In total, we believe that the company could deliver a beat of over $0.10 should it choose; however, it may accelerate capitalized software amortization and add to its reserves, resulting in a more modest beat of $0.06 or so. With Overwatch enjoying high-profile success, it is uncertain whether investors would react favorably to only a modest beat."

Related Link: Mobile Game Revenue Expected To Grow By 21% To $36.87 Billion This Year, To Hit $52.5 Billion By 2019

The brokerage boosted its estimate by $75 million in revenue and EPS by $0.06 to $1.45 billion and $0.42 respectively.

The Street analysts' consensus also got a boost. Three months back, they estimated an EPS of $0.39. Currently, they expect $0.42 on revenue of $1.46 billion. While releasing first-quarter results, Activision projected an adjusted EPS of $0.38 and non-GAAP revenue of $1.375 billion. On a GAAP basis, the company estimated net revenues of $1.425 billion and EPS of $0.10 for the second quarter.

There is another reason for optimism. In the first quarter, the company delivered significantly higher than its projected EPS and revenue. It estimated adjusted revenue of $800 million and EPS of $0.11, but delivered $908 million revenue and EPS of $0.23. One of the reasons was 10 percent growth in monthly active users of online player community.

The company will hold a conference call to discuss its quarterly results and investors can log on here to listen.

After the first quarter results announcement, the stock advanced about 17 percent. Currently, shares of Activision are trading up by $0.55, or 1.36 percent, at $40.93.

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