Big-name video game company Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:$EA) announced its fiscal first quarter earnings on Thursday, July 27. For the period, EA saw a revenue of $1.45 billion – a rise from the $1.27 billion it saw in 2016’s second quarter. Earnings per share was $2.06, a 47% increase year-over-year. The increases were largely due to an increase in sales of popular video games like “Battlefield 1” and “The Sims”.
According to an analyst at Baird (traded privately), Colin Sebastian, EA’s first quarter results mostly met expectations. Additionally, EA’s non-GAAP earnings per share for this quarter was $0.31, which surpassed the average analysts’ expectation of $0.27. Adjusted revenue was $775 million, which also surpassed average analysts’ expectation of $768.5 million.
EA’s digital business has done especially well in its first quarter, seeing a 27.6% rise year-over-year. The business alone raked in $879 million in revenue thanks to an increasing number of consumers purchasing and downloading games online rather than buying physical copies.
Despite a positive first quarter, however, EA’s stock went down by about 3% in after-hours trading on July 27. This was because the company’s guidance for its second-quarter, as well as its fiscal year, fell below analyst expectations even with “Madden NFL 18” set to be released on August 25 and “FIFA 18” set to be released on September 29. For EA’s second quarter, the company is expecting an adjusted revenue of $1.16 billion, just a little under average analysts’ expectation of $1.18 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
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