CARTOON LIKELY TO AID THQ.

Byline: Ben Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer

``Rugrats,'' wrestling and higher revenues are expected to provide a 32 percent boost to videogame maker THQ Inc.'s first quarter earnings due out today.

A consensus of analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. expects the Calabasas-based company to earn 75 cents per share, on sales of approximately $72 million, compared to 57 cents per share in the like period one year ago.

THQ develops and publishes titles for Sony, Sega and Nintendo game consoles. Though best known for its World Championship Wrestling games, the company last year lost that lucrative license in a bidding war to competitor Electronic Arts and has since shifted much of its resources to other titles, including games based on the popular ``Rugrats'' children's television program.

Under its contract with WCW, THQ must stop marketing games with the well-known label this summer. But the gamemaker has already signed a deal with the smaller World Wrestling Federation to market games featuring that group's characters beginning in November.

THQ's stock is trading at a lower multiple of earnings than other companies in its sector, in part because of concern over the loss of the WCW license, which at one point accounted for more than two-thirds of the company's sales. THQ shares have a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.6, compared to an industry average of just under 30. But analyst Anthony Gikas at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray said such investor worry is misplaced.

``If you look back at 1997 and 1998, THQ published two wrestling games a year, one at the start and one just before the holiday season,'' Gikas said. ``They're doing exactly the same thing this year.''

Gikas, like most of the seven analysts following THQ, considers the stock at its current price to represent a buying opportunity. THQ shares closed up 62.5 cents Wednesday at $23.50.