Electronic Arts Surprises Street, Scores Big with EA Sports

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Electronic Arts Beats Estimates [TheStreet.com]

Summary: Electronic Arts virtually came out of nowhere to report record Q2 revenue in N. America and Europe, with total net revenue of $784 million, a 16% y-o-y increase. Net income was $22 million ($0.07/share), or a 57% y-o-y decline, but excluding special items it was $65 million ($0.21/share), beating the $0.02/share estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. EA said sales were driven primarily by its sports titles, led by Madden NFL 07 and NCAA Football 07, which sold more than 7 million copies combined in the quarter. Chairman and CEO Larry Probst commented, "We are well prepared for the holidays on all platforms, including the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii." EA was bullish in its Q3 outlook, saying it expects sales to range between $1.2 and $1.3 billion, with net income between $0.33 and $0.43 per share. EA raised its full-year guidance, saying sales will be between $2.95 billion and $3.125 billion, compared to its prior forecast of $2.8 billion to $3 billion. Full-year earnings per share is now seen at break-even to $0.15, versus -$0.30 to break-even, previously. EA's stock gained 0.45% during normal trading to close at $53.00, but jumped over 8% in after-hours trading to $57.31.
Related links: EA F2Q07 Earnings Call Transcript • EA Q2 Earnings Press Release • Additional earnings coverage: Bloomberg, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal • EA Earnings Preview: Guidance Will Drive Price Action • Gaming Software Stocks: Analyst Cuts Rating on Take Two, THQ • EA to Profit From the Gaming Console Wars • The Growing Importance of Online Gaming for Nextgen Consoles
Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Electronic Arts (ERTS), Activision (ATVI), Konami (KNM), Take Two (TTWO), THQ (THQI), Microsoft (MSFT), Nintendo (NTDOY.PK), Sony (SNE) • ETF: iShares Goldman Sachs Software Index (IGV)

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