Electronic Boutique's Market Blahs

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The video game industry enjoyed a blockbuster holiday season in 2004, and pure-play video game retailer Electronics Boutique (Nasdaq: ELBO) was no exception.

For its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Jan. 29, Electronics Boutique saw revenues increase 20.5% to $809 million, while same-store sales edged up 3%. Meanwhile, net income came in at $38.1 million, or $1.53 per share. But excluding a one-time charge related to an accounting change, earnings per share rose from $1.57 last year to $1.64, beating the analyst estimate by a couple of pennies.

Driving results was a 22% increase in video game software sales, led by big titles like Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Halo 2 for the Xbox and Take-Two Interactive's (Nasdaq: TTWO) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the Sony (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation 2. Electronics Boutique also cited strong sales of the newly released portable system, the NintendoDS.

On the other hand, the company also said that an industry-wide shortage of video game hardware held back its results. With the company's outlook falling shy of expectations, its shares are down almost 7% to $36.82 in early afternoon trading.

Electronics Boutique expects first-quarter revenue to rise 30% to 34%, with same-store sales growth climbing a healthy 9% to 13%, thanks in large part to the quarter's release of Gran Turismo 4 and other hits, such as Electronic Arts' (Nasdaq: ERTS) NBA Street. However, the company's EPS forecast of $0.12 to $0.14 remains short of the analyst estimate of $0.15.

For the full year, the company expects revenues to climb another 15% to 20% to between $2.29 billion and $2.39 billion, after seeing sales increase 24.2% to $1.99 billion in the just completed year. Electronics Boutique's EPS forecast of $2.34 to $2.44, though, is more conservative than the $2.43 analyst estimate. The company sees tough year-over-year sales comparisons during the second half of the year, and it's accounting for uncertainty in the release schedule of Microsoft's next-generation Xbox 2.

For more on Electronics Boutique, check out:

• Electronics Boutique Quintuples Earnings
• Electronics Boutique Cells Games
• New Look at Electronics Boutique
• Time Bomb at Electronics Boutique?

Fool contributor Jeff Hwang owns shares of Electronic Arts. The Fool has a disclosure policy.