Tuesday, July 17, 2012

EA Off 8%: FYQ4 Rev Beats; FYQ1, Year View Weak

Video game maker Electronic Arts (EA) this afternoon reported fiscal Q4 revenue ahead of estimates, and profit per share in line with consensus, but offered fiscal Q1 and a fiscal 2013 forecasts that missed estimates.

Revenue in the three months ended in March fell to $977 million, on a non-GAAP basis, yielding EPS of 17 cents, excluding some costs.

Analysts had been modeling $958 million and 17 cents a share.

EA shares are off $1.08, or 7%, at $14.05 in late trading.

For the current quarter, the company sees revenue of $500 million and a net loss of 40 cents to 45 cents a share. The Street has been modeling $581 million and a 33-cent loss per share, according to FactSet.

For this year the company projects revenue of $4.3 billion, on a non-GAAP basis, below the average $4.74 billion estimate, with EPS in a range of $1.05 to $1.20, excluding some costs, below the average $1.35 estimate.

EA will host a conference call�with analysts at 5 pm, Eastern time, and you can catch the webcast of it here.

Update: During a phone call following the report, EA’s interim CFO Ken Barker said that the fiscal year outlook was affected by the company moving one planned title from fiscal ’13 into fiscal ’14, though he would not say what that title is and the company does not plan to discuss it at this time.

As far as this quarter’s outlook, Barker offered that some analysts may not have properly anticipated that the company would have fewer packaged goods titles this quarter than it did in the year-ago period.

Barker said the company was pleased with its progress in “digital” sales of games, meaning software that is not sold as the typical packaged good in a box at retail but downloaded from the Internet, including games run on mobile devices.

EA sees digital revenue this year of $1.7 billion, which would be up 30% from last year and will approach 40% of total non-GAAP revenue for the year.

In particular, some titles are stand-outs, such as “FIFA 2012,” its soccer franchise, which has recorded over $100 million in sales in the last six months, said Barker. Last year’s $1.2 billion in total digital revenue “shattered” the company’s original outlook for $1 billion, said Barker.

Mobile game play, especially on cell phones, is rising “significantly” for EA, he said. It was $84 million last quarter, up 25% from the year-earlier period. Barker noted that CEO John Riccitiello will be a keynote speaker at the cellular confab going on this weak in New Orleans, CTIA 2012.

At this point, the company is not breaking out the split in mobile revenue between handsets, or smartphones, and tablet computers.

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