Game restart key to future growth as EA saw record sales

(Reuters) – Wall Street analysts expect Electronic Arts Inc to report record quarterly sales on Tuesday as gamers hang at home due to new pandemic-induced restrictions, pushing demand for its ‘Madden NFL 21’ and ‘FIFA 21’ sports titles into the crucial Christmas shopping season.

Investors will also be looking for details on the new version of their first person shooter game “Battlefield” and race title “Need For Speed”. Delays in the updates to “FIFA” and “Madden NFL 21” negatively impacted the company’s sales last year.

“EA plans to launch six next-generation games in FY2022, headed by a new Battlefield game that is expected to anchor a more robust CY2021 / FY2022 slate,” said Stifel analyst Drew Crum, adding that it company did not have any action this year. release.

THE CONTEXT

EA and rivals Activision Blizzard Inc and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc benefited from a surge in video game sales during the pandemic.

But faced with fierce competition, publishers must keep updating their best-selling titles to attract new gamers and keep old ones. EA’s quarterly results will give a glimpse of how the games fared against popular titles like Activision’s “Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War” and Take Two’s “NBA 2K21”.

For an image on Wall Street, EA revenue expects to hit record highs in the third quarter:

THE BASIS

* The Redwood City, California-based company is expected to report a 20.7% increase in revenue to $ 2.387 billion from $ 1.98 billion a year ago, according to the average estimate of 25 analysts, based on Refinitiv data.

* The average analyst estimate for Electronic Arts is for earnings of $ 2.96 per share. For the same quarter last year, the company reported earnings of $ 2.52 per share.

WALL STREET FEEL

* The current average analyst rating for the stock is “buy” and the recommendations breakdown is 20 “strong buy” or “buy”, 13 “hold” and no “sell” or “strong sell”.

* Analysts estimated average earnings are down about 32% over the past three months.

* Wall Street’s average 12-month price target for Electronic Arts Inc is $ 150, about 4.7% above the last close of $ 143.01.

For an image about video game publishers’ shares have risen over the past year (EA / TTWO / ATVI):

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Wall Street expects EA revenues to hit record highs in the third quarter tmsnrt.rs/36mRGU5

Shares of video game publishers have gone up in the past year (EA / TTWO / ATVI) Shares of video game publishers have gone up in the past year tmsnrt.rs/39CHBnZ

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