Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) today announced preliminary financial results for its first fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2022.

“EA delivered strong results in Q1 with our growing player network deeply engaged in new games and live services,” said CEO Andrew Wilson. “Our expanding EA SPORTS portfolio and owned IP franchises continue to power resilience and longevity in our business. Our teams remain focused on what they do best – making amazing experiences that inspire new generations to play, watch, create, compete and connect.”

“Our FIFA franchise and the successful launch of F1 drove our net bookings outperformance, delivering another quarter ahead of expectations,” said CFO Chris Suh. “Looking ahead, our focus on execution and disciplined investment across our broad portfolio of games and live services will fuel our long-term growth.”

Selected Operating Highlights and Metrics

• Net bookings¹ for the trailing twelve months was $7.478 billion, up 22% year-over-year.
• Live services and other net bookings for the trailing twelve months were up 20% year-over-year and represent 73% of total net bookings.
• The EA player network grew to nearly 600 million active accounts at quarter end.
• FIFA Ultimate Team™ engagement during the quarter was up nearly 40% year-over-year in weekly and daily average players.
• In Q1, FIFA Mobile delivered the highest net bookings quarter in history, with record high DAUs, up 10% from last quarter.

Selected Financial Highlights and Metrics

• Net cash (used in)/provided by operating activities was $(78) million for the quarter and $1.964 billion for the trailing twelve months.
• EA repurchased 2.5 million shares for $320 million during the quarter, bringing the total for the trailing twelve months to 9.7 million shares for $1.295 billion.
• EA paid a cash dividend of $0.19 per share during the quarter, for a total of $53 million.

Dividend

EA has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.19 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on September 21, 2022 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 31, 2022.

Quarterly Financial Highlights

The following GAAP-based financial data² and tax rate of 19% 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 was used internally by company management to adjust its GAAP results in order to assess EA’s operating results. During fiscal 2022, management used a tax rate of 18% and in fiscal 2023 a tax rate of 19%.

Operating Metric

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

Business Outlook as of August 2, 2022

Fiscal Year 2023 Expectations – Ending March 31, 2023

Financial metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $7.600 to $7.800 billion.
  • Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately $300 million.
• Net income is expected to be approximately $793 to $815 million.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $2.79 to $2.87.
• Operating cash flow is expected to be approximately $1.600 to $1.650 billion.
• The Company estimates a share count of 284 million for purposes of calculating fiscal year 2023 diluted earnings per share.

Operational metric:

• Net bookings¹ is expected to be approximately $7.900 to $8.100 billion.

In addition, the following outlook for GAAP-based financial data² and updated long-term tax rate of 19% are used internally by EA to adjust our GAAP expectations to assess EA’s operating results and plan for future periods:

Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Expectations – Ending September 30, 2022

Financial metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $1.850 to $1.900 billion.
  • Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately $(125) million.
• Net income is expected to be approximately $220 to $242 million.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $0.78 to $0.86.
• The Company estimates a share count of 281 million for purposes of calculating second quarter fiscal 2023 diluted earnings per share.

Operational metric:

• Net bookings¹ is expected to be approximately $1.725 to $1.775 billion.

In addition, the following outlook for GAAP-based financial data² and updated long-term tax rate of 19% 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 August 2, 2022 at 2:00 pm PT (5:00 pm ET) to review its results for the first quarter ended June 30, 2022 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 (888) 330-2446 (domestic) or (240) 789-2732 (international), using the conference code 5939891 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 August 16, 2022 at (800) 770-2030 (domestic) or (647) 362-9199 (international) using pin code 5939891. 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 August 2, 2022” and other information regarding EA's fiscal 2023 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: 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; economic and geopolitical conditions; changes in our tax rates or tax laws; and other factors described in Part I, Item 1A of Electronic Arts’ latest Annual Report on Form 10-K under the heading “Risk Factors”, as well as in other documents we have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

These forward-looking statements are current as of August 2, 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 June 30, 2022. 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 June 30, 2022.

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 2022, EA posted GAAP net revenue of approximately $7 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.

¹ Net bookings is defined as the net amount of products and services sold digitally or sold-in physically in the period. Net bookings is calculated by adding total net revenue to the change in deferred net revenue for online-enabled games.

² For more information about the nature of the GAAP-based financial data, please refer to EA’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022.

Results (in $ millions, except per share data)

The following table reports the variance of the actuals versus our guidance provided on May 10, 2022 for the three months ended June 30, 2022 plus a comparison to the actuals for the three months ended June 30, 2021.

¹The change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of cash flows does not necessarily equal the change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations primarily due to the impact of unrecognized gains/losses on cash flow hedges.

²Derived from audited consolidated financial statements.

¹The change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of cash flows does not necessarily equal the change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations primarily due to the impact of unrecognized gains/losses on cash flow hedges.

¹The change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of cash flows does not necessarily equal the change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations primarily due to the impact of unrecognized gains/losses on cash flow hedges.

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