Electronic Arts Reports Strong Q1 FY25 Results

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) today announced preliminary financial results for its first quarter ended June 30, 2024.

“EA delivered a strong start to FY25, beating net bookings guidance as we continue to execute across our business,” said Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA. "Our focus on delivering bigger, bolder, and more connected experiences for our players has never been sharper and is illustrated by the record-breaking launch of EA SPORTS College Football 25 as we head into another historic Q2 sports season at EA."

“Strong execution, live events and continued player engagement across our experiences, delivered Q1 results above expectations,” said Stuart Canfield, CFO of EA. “Looking ahead, the remarkable success of our launch week for College Football, combined with the upcoming launches for EA SPORTS Madden NFL, EA SPORTS FC and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, is building momentum for FY25 and beyond. We are well positioned to deliver our multi-year financial objectives.”

Selected Operating Highlights and Metrics

• Net bookings¹ for the quarter totaled $1.262 billion, exceeding the high end of the guidance range of $1.250 billion. This was driven by stronger performance across Madden NFL 24, FC Online and FC Mobile.
• EA SPORTS FC^TM celebrated real-world tournaments and events during Q1, attracting tens of millions of new fans and driving engagement across the franchise during the quarter.

• EA SPORTS^TM Madden NFL delivered sustained momentum through the quarter, with weekly average users in Ultimate Team and total net bookings up double digits year-over-year.
• During the quarter, EA revealed Dragon Age: The Veilguard gameplay, which trended #1 on YouTube Gaming and received millions of views.
• After the quarter ended, EA SPORTS^TM College Football 25 welcomed 5 million unique players into the game through its first week, with over 500,000 more playing via the EA Play trial.

Selected Financial Highlights and Metrics

• Net revenue was $1.660 billion for the quarter.
• Net cash provided by operating activities was $120 million for the quarter and $2.076 billion for the trailing twelve months.
• EA repurchased 2.8 million shares for $375 million during the quarter under the new stock repurchase program, bringing the total for the trailing twelve months to 10.2 million shares for $1.350 billion.

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 18, 2024 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on August 28, 2024.

Quarterly Financial Highlights

Trailing Twelve Months Financial Highlights

Operating Metric

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

Business Outlook as of July 30, 2024

Fiscal Year 2025 Expectations – Ending March 31, 2025

Financial outlook metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $7.100 billion to $7.500 billion.
  • Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately $200 million.
• Net income is expected to be approximately $904 million to $1.085 billion.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $3.34 to $4.00.
• Operating cash flow is expected to be approximately $2.050 billion to $2.250 billion.
• The Company estimates a share count of 271 million for purposes of calculating diluted earnings per share.

Operational outlook metric:

• Net bookings¹ is expected to be approximately $7.300 billion to $7.700 billion.

Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Expectations – Ending September 30, 2024

Financial outlook metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $1.900 billion to $2.000 billion.
  • Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately $50 million.

• Net income is expected to be approximately $204 million to $248 million.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $0.76 to $0.93.
• The Company estimates a share count of 267 million for purposes of calculating diluted earnings per share.

Operational outlook metric:

• Net bookings¹ is expected to be approximately $1.950 billion to $2.050 billion.

Conference Call and Supporting Documents

Electronic Arts will host a conference call on July 30, 2024 at 2:00 pm PT (5:00 pm ET) to review its results for the first fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2024 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 14, 2024 at (800) 770-2030 (domestic) or (647) 362-9199 (international) using conference 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 July 30, 2024” and other information regarding EA's 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 and trends; 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 July 30, 2024. 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, 2024. 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, 2024.

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 2024, EA posted GAAP net revenue of approximately $7.6 billion. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, EA is recognized for a portfolio of critically acclaimed, high-quality brands such as EA SPORTS FC™, Battlefield™, Apex Legends™, The Sims™, EA SPORTS™ Madden NFL, EA SPORTS™ College Football, Need for Speed™, Dragon Age™, Titanfall™, Plants vs. Zombies™ and EA SPORTS F1^®. More information about EA is available at www.ea.com/news.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS FC, Battlefield, Need for Speed, Apex Legends, The Sims, Dragon Age, Titanfall, and Plants vs. Zombies are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. 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.

Results (in $ millions, except per share data)

The following table reports the variance of the actuals versus our guidance provided on May 7, 2024 for the three months ended June 30, 2024 plus a comparison to the actuals for the three months ended June 30, 2023.

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.

³Free cash flow is defined as Operating cash flow less Capital expenditures.

¹ The Company uses a tax rate of 19% internally to evaluate its operating performance and to forecast, plan and analyze future periods.

² The mid-point of the range has been used for purposes of presenting reconciling items to operating margin.

¹ The Company uses a tax rate of 19% internally to evaluate its operating performance and to forecast, plan and analyze future periods.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

As a supplement to the Company’s financial measures presented in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”), the Company presents certain non-GAAP measures of financial performance, including non-GAAP operating margin and free cash flow. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. In addition, these non-GAAP measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all of the items associated with the Company’s results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures do not reflect a comprehensive system of accounting and differ from GAAP measures with the same names and may differ from non-GAAP financial measures with the same or similar names that are used by other companies.

The non-GAAP financial measures exclude acquisition-related expenses, stock-based compensation, restructuring and related charges, and capital expenditures, as applicable in any given reporting period and our outlook. The Company may consider whether other significant items that arise in the future should be excluded from our non-GAAP financial measures. Management believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide investors with additional useful information to better understand and evaluate the Company’s operating results and future prospects because they exclude certain items that may not be indicative of the Company’s core business, operating results, or future outlook. These non-GAAP financial measures, with further adjustments are used by management to understand ongoing financial and business performance.

The Company uses a tax rate of 19% internally to evaluate its operating performance and to forecast, plan, and analyze future periods. Accordingly, the Company applies the same tax rate to its management reporting financial results.

Investors are encouraged to review the related GAAP financial measures and the reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.

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