Bucking a trend of bad earnings reports from smaller rivals Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ:TTWO) and Midway Games (NYSE:MWY), Motley Fool Stock Advisor selection Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) handily beat second-quarter estimates and maintained its full-year guidance. The news boosted EA shares 8% to $60.23.
On Nov. 1, EA announced that net revenue in the second quarter fell 6% to $675 million, while net income was halved to $51 million, or $0.16 per share. Excluding certain items, the company earned $0.15 per share. While not terribly impressive on the surface, both results far surpassed analysts' expectations for earnings of $0.04 per share on $635 million in revenue.
The company said that sales were driven primarily by Madden NFL 06, NCAA Football 06, Burnout Revenge, FIFA 06, NBA Live 06, and The Sims 2. With its exclusive deals with the NFL and college football, EA claimed a 75% market share in the sports segment, up seven percentage points from last year. The quarter's results also benefited from the company's release of FIFA 06 earlier than expected, just before the end of the quarter.
EA provided weaker-than-expected guidance for the third quarter. The company's earnings forecast (excluding certain charges) of $1.18 to $1.28 per share falls short of the $1.43-per-share analyst estimate. However, EA mostly maintained its full-year guidance for earnings (excluding charges) of $1.45 to $1.60 per share, on $3.25 billion to $3.4 billion in revenues. The bottom end of that revenue forecast is down slightly from the company's previous figures of $3.3 billion to $3.4 billion.
The third-quarter forecast may be light, but things are just heating up for EA. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) plans to release the next-generation Xbox 360 console Nov. 22. EA announced five launch titles for the new system at a next-generation $59.99 price point: Madden NFL 06, Need for Speed Most Wanted, NBA Live 06, FIFA 06, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06. With rivals such as THQ (NASDAQ:THQI) pushing back release dates, EA is one of the few sure bets to capitalize early in the game.
We're game for further Foolishness:
- Take-Two hits pause.
- THQ juices second-quarter sales.
- Fools duel over Electronic Arts.
Want to find other investment ideas like Electronic Arts? Take a free, no-obligation trial today to Motley Fool Stock Advisor .
The Motley Fool has kicked off its ninth annual Foolanthropy campaign! Nominate your favorite charities on our Foolanthropy discussion board through Nov. 6. For guidelines on what makes a charity Foolish, visit www.foolanthropy.com .
Fool contributor Jeff Hwang owns shares of Electronic Arts. The Fool has a disclosure policy .
