The game restarts the key to future growth, as EA saw record revenue

(Reuters) – Wall Street analysts expect Electronic Arts Inc. to report record quarterly earnings on Tuesday as players stay home due to new pandemic-induced restrictions that increase demand for their sports titles “Madden NFL 21 “and” FIFA 21 “holiday shopping season.

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

“EA intends to launch 6 next-generation games in FY2022, led by a new Battlefield game that is expected to anchor a more robust CY2021 / FY2022 board,” said Stifel analyst Drew Crum, who add that this year the company did not take any action. release.

THE CONTEXT

EA and its rivals Activision Blizzard Inc. and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. have benefited from increased video game sales during the pandemic.

But in the face of fierce competition, publishers must continue to refresh their best-selling titles to attract new players and keep old ones. EA’s quarterly results will provide a clue as to how their games resisted popular titles like Activision’s “Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War” and Take Two’s “NBA 2K21”.

For a chart on Wall Street, EA revenue is expected to hit a record in the third quarter:

THE FUNDAMENTALS

* The Redwood City, California-based company is expected to report a 20.7% increase in revenue to $ 2.387 billion, up from $ 1.988 billion the previous year, according to an average of 25 analysts, based on Refinitiv data.

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

WALL STREET FEELING

* The current average rating of stock analysts is “buy” and the breakdown of recommendations is 20 “strong buy” or “buy”, 13 “hold” and not “sell” or “strong sell”.

* Analysts ’average earnings estimate fell about 32% in the past three months.

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

To get a chart on the actions of video game publishers have increased over the last year (EA / TTWO / ATVI):

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Wall Street expects EA revenue to hit third quarter tmsnrt.rs/36mRGU5

Video game publisher quotas have increased in the last year (EA / TTWO / ATVI) Video game publisher quotas have increased in the last year tmsnrt.rs/39CHBnZ

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