Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced preliminary financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2021.

“FY22 has been a year of outstanding growth for Electronic Arts, and we’re proud that our franchises were among the most-downloaded, most-played, and most popular titles over the last year and the holiday quarter,” said Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts. “Our network of more than 540 million unique active accounts continues to expand, players are spending more time in our games, and with our amazing IP we are well-positioned for continued growth.”

“Q3 was the largest quarter in the company’s history for net bookings, underlying profitability and cash generation,” said CFO Blake Jorgensen. “Our portfolio approach will enable us to deliver organic growth in the double digits this year, continue to deliver strong cash flow, and provides a strong foundation for growth as we look to the future.”

Selected Operating Highlights and Metrics

• Net bookings¹ for the trailing twelve months was $7.254 billion, up 22% year-over-year.
• Over the last year, the EA player network has grown to more than 540 million unique active accounts.
• During FY22 to date, more than 180 million monthly active accounts on average engaged in our games across all platforms.
• At quarter end, Apex Legends™ monthly active players were up more than 30% year-over-year.
• Players are spending nearly 20% more time in our games in FY22 compared to the previous year.

Selected Financial Highlights and Metrics

• Net cash provided by operating activities was a record $1.534 billion for the quarter and $1.826 billion for the trailing twelve months.
• EA repurchased 2.4 million shares for $325 million during the quarter, bringing the total for the last twelve months to 9.4 million shares for $1.300 billion.
• EA paid a cash dividend of $0.17 per share during the quarter.

Dividend

EA has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.17 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on March 23, 2022 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 9, 2022.

Quarterly Financial Highlights

The following GAAP-based financial data² and tax rate of 18% was used internally by company management to adjust its GAAP results in order to assess EA’s operating results:

Trailing Twelve Months Financial Highlights

The following GAAP-based financial data² and tax rate of 18% was used internally by company management to adjust its GAAP results in order to assess EA’s operating results:

Operating Metric

The following is a calculation of our total net bookings¹ for the periods presented:

Business Outlook as of February 1, 2022

Our financial expectations for the quarter and fiscal year ending March 31, 2022 include estimates of the impact of our completed acquisitions on consolidated results and could be materially impacted as we integrate these acquisitions.

Fiscal Year 2022 Expectations – Ending March 31, 2022

Financial metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $6.925 billion.
  • Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately $600 million.
• Net income is expected to be approximately $694 million.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $2.43.
• Operating cash flow is expected to be approximately $1.900 billion.
• The Company estimates a share count of 286 million for purposes of calculating fiscal year 2022 diluted earnings per share.

Operational metric:

• Net bookings¹ is expected to be approximately $7.525 billion.

In addition, the following outlook for GAAP-based financial data² and a long-term tax rate of 18% are used internally by EA to adjust our GAAP expectations to assess EA’s operating results and plan for future periods:

Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2022 Expectations – Ending March 31, 2022

Financial metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $1.759 billion.
  • Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately $2 million.
• Net income is expected to be approximately $130 million.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $0.46.
• The Company estimates a share count of 284 million for purposes of calculating fourth quarter fiscal 2022 diluted earnings per share.

Operational metric:

• Net bookings¹ is expected to be approximately $1.761 billion.

In addition, the following outlook for GAAP-based financial data² and a long-term tax rate of 18% are used internally by EA to adjust our GAAP expectations to assess EA’s operating results and plan for future periods:

Conference Call and Supporting Documents

Electronic Arts will host a conference call on February 1, 2022 at 2:00 pm PT (5:00 pm ET) to review its results for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2021 and its outlook for the future. During the course of the call, Electronic Arts may disclose material developments affecting its business and/or financial performance. Listeners may access the conference call live through the following dial-in number (866) 324-3683 (domestic) or (509) 844-0959 (international), using the conference code 4063695 or via webcast at EA’s IR Website at http://ir.ea.com.

EA has posted a slide presentation with a financial model of EA’s historical results and guidance on EA’s IR Website. EA will also post the prepared remarks and a transcript from the conference call on EA’s IR Website.

A dial-in replay of the conference call will be available until February 15, 2022 at 855-859-2056 (domestic) or 404-537-3406 (international) using pin code 4063695. An audio webcast replay of the conference call will be available for one year on EA’s IR Website.

Forward-Looking Statements

Some statements set forth in this release, including the information relating to EA’s expectations under the heading “Business Outlook as of February 1, 2022” and other information regarding EA's fiscal 2022 and other future expectations contain forward-looking statements that are subject to change. Statements including words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “estimate,” “plan,” “predict,” “seek,” “goal,” “will,” “may,” “likely,” “should,” “could” (and the negative of any of these terms), “future” and similar expressions also identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and reflect management’s current expectations. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements.

Some of the factors which could cause the Company’s results to differ materially from its expectations include the following: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, sales of the Company’s products and services; the Company’s ability to develop and support digital products and services, including managing online security and privacy; outages of our products, services and technological infrastructure; the Company’s ability to manage expenses; the competition in the interactive entertainment industry; governmental regulations; the effectiveness of the Company’s sales and marketing programs; timely development and release of the Company’s products and services; the Company’s ability to realize the anticipated benefits of, and integrate, acquisitions; the consumer demand for, and the availability of an adequate supply of console hardware units; the Company’s ability to predict consumer preferences among competing platforms; the Company’s ability to develop and implement new technology; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; general economic conditions; changes in our tax rates or tax laws; and other factors described in Part II, Item 1A of Electronic Arts’ latest Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q under the heading “Risk Factors”, as well as in other documents we have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021.

These forward-looking statements are current as of February 1, 2022. Electronic Arts assumes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement for any reason, except as required by law. In addition, the preliminary financial results set forth in this release are estimates based on information currently available to Electronic Arts.

While Electronic Arts believes these estimates are meaningful, they could differ from the actual amounts that Electronic Arts ultimately reports in its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2021. Electronic Arts assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these estimates prior to filing its Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2021.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) is a global leader in digital interactive entertainment. The Company develops and delivers games, content and online services for Internet-connected consoles, mobile devices and personal computers.

In fiscal year 2021, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $5.6 billion. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, EA is recognized for a portfolio of critically acclaimed, high-quality brands such as EA SPORTS™ FIFA, Battlefield™, Apex Legends™, The Sims™, Madden NFL, Need for Speed™, Titanfall™, Plants vs. Zombies™ and F1^®. More information about EA is available at www.ea.com/news.

EA SPORTS, Battlefield, Need for Speed, Apex Legends, The Sims, Titanfall and Plants vs. Zombies are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. STAR WARS © & TM 2015 Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved. John Madden, NFL, FIFA and F1 are the property of their respective owners and used with permission.

Results (in $ millions, except per share data)

The following table reports the variance of the actuals versus our guidance provided on November 3, 2021 for the three months ended December 31, 2021 plus a comparison to the actuals for the three months ended December 31, 2020.

Category: Company News

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220131005975/en/