NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- In its first financial report as a public company, Zynga edged past analysts' expectations but posted a loss thanks to its large stock-based compensation expenses.
The casual gaming pioneer, best known for its -Ville franchises like FarmVille, reported sales of $311 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31. Excluding stock compensation costs, Zynga had net income for the quarter of $37 million, or 5 cents per share. That topped the 3 cents per share consensus forecast of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
But Zynga's compensation expenses ate through its profit. For the full 2011 fiscal year, Zynga posted a net loss of $404 million on sales of $1.2 billion. Zynga's stock-based compensation expenses for the year totaled $510 million.
Without those expenses, Zynga's net income for the year would have been $182 million. That's a 24% decline from 2010, a drop Zynga attributed to its increased investment in developing new games.
Zynga's (ZNGA) share price fell 9% in after-hours trading immediately following its financial report, but quickly bounced back to trade essentially flat with Tuesday's $14.35 per share closing price.
Zynga's 2011 sales rose 38% compared to 2010, topping $1 billion for the first time.
The company's "monthly active users," a closely watched metric tracking how many people are playing Zynga's games, reached 240 million in the fourth quarter -- up 23% compared to a year earlier.
Zynga went public in December, raising $1 billion in an offering that valued the company at around $7 billion. Zynga competes in a fast-growing market with with rivals including Electronic Arts (ERTS) and Disney (DIS, Fortune 500)-owned Playdom and PopCap Games. *




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