The Power of 'Potter': Movie Delay Hurts Electronic Arts Outlook

Behold the Power of Potter. Time Warner (TWX) yesterday disclosed it won’t put out the new Harry Potter film, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” this November, as originally planned, and instead will make it a Summer 2009 release — specifically, for July 17 of next year. That’s going to hurt Electronic Arts (ERTS), which will lose a holiday ‘08 game title that represents about $150 million in revenue this year, according to analysts. The revenue and profit should come back the following year, though.

Arvind Bhatia with Sterne, Agee & Leach, in a note to clients Friday, says that Electronic Arts will make 10 cents less per share this fiscal year ending in March, and 10 cents more in 2010, or $1.41 and $2.51, respectively. He cut his sales estimates by $150 million for this year to $5.04 billion. In a note to clients, Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald cut his estimates for this year by 5 cents to $1.35 and cut his revenue estimate to $4.95 billion. Obviously, Greenwald is lower than Bhatia, and he thinks the Street consensus is too high. The Street’s been looking for $1.52 per share this year and $5.15 billion. Greenwald thinks analysts aren’t paying enough attention to EA’s rising cost of development for new games.

Greenwald has a “Hold” rating on EA shares, while Bhatia has a “Buy” rating and a price target of $72.

EA sharesFriday fell 36 cents, or .74%, to $48.24.