Electronic Arts Revenue Beats Street, Outlook Strong, Shares Up 7%

(RTTNews) - Shares of Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) on Tuesday surged 7% in after-hours trade after the video game publisher's fourth-quarter revenues trumped Wall Street estimates and outlook came in above current expectations.

Redwood City, California-based Electronic Arts reported fourth-quarter profit of $209 million or $0.69 per share, down from $607 million or $1.95 per share a year ago. EA did not report an adjusted per-share earnings figure.

On average, 30 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.98 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Electronic Arts' revenue for the fourth quarter dropped to $1.24 billion from $1.58 billion a year ago. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.20 billion for the quarter.

"We ended our fiscal year with strong growth, driven by our live services business which continued to provide a very large, stable and profitable source of net bookings," said COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen. "Looking ahead, we will bring games to an extraordinary variety of players in fiscal 2020 and deliver on our commitment to players with deep live services content for Ultimate Team, Apex Legends, The Sims 4, Anthem and Battlefield V."

Digital net bookings for the trailing twelve months was $3.722 billion, up 5% year-over-year and represents 75% of total net bookings.

Looking forward to the full year 2020, EA expects earnings of about $8.56 per share and revenues of $5.375 billion. Earnings include a one-time tax benefit of around $5 per share.

Analysts currently expect earnings of $4.49 per share and revenues of $5.16 billion.

"FY20 will be a year of continued growth for our industry, and we're excited to bring more great entertainment to the expanding audience around the world," said CEO Andrew Wilson.

EA closed Tuesday's trading at $92.73, down $1.03 or 1.10%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, gained $6.57 or 7.09% in after-hours trade.