(By Balachander) Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) shares jumped in early Tuesday trading after Bank of America-Merrill Lynch upgraded the stock to "buy" from "underperform".
The rating change comes hours before the San Francisco-based Facebook-game developer posts its quarterly numbers.
After the closing bell on Tuesday, Zynga is expected to report a loss of 3 cents a share for the fourth quarter on revenue drop of 31 percent to $212 million.
In the year-ago quarter, the company earned 5 cents a share on revenue of $306.5 million. Daily active users (DAUs) increased 10 percent to 60 million on a year-over-year basis.
In the preceding third quarter, Zynga posted breakeven earnings on a non-GAAP basis and a loss of 7 cents on a GAAP basis. The company recorded revenue of $317 million.
Late last year, the online social gaming company amended terms of agreement with Facebook (NASDAQ: FB). Zynga will no longer be separately obligated to display Facebook ad units or implement Facebook credits on any such Zynga game pages, a regulatory filing showed.
ZNGA stock, which has been trading in the 52-week range of $2.09 to $15.91, traded 17 cents higher at $2.73 at 9.47 am ET on Tuesday.