Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) released its FQ3 2018 earnings results after closing bell tonight. EA reported a GAAP loss of 60 cents per share on $1.16 billion in sales. Analysts had been expecting the Electronic Arts earnings report to reveal $2.02 billion in revenue. In the year-ago quarter, EA broke even on a GAAP basis on $1.15 billion in net revenue.
Electronic Arts earnings
Electronic Arts said digital net revenues rose to $780 million in the December quarter, up from $685 million in the year-ago quarter. Packaged goods and other net revenues fell to $380 million from $464 million a year ago. The game maker also announced that it recognized $176 million in income tax expenses in 2017 in connection with the tax reform bill.
“Players enjoyed hundreds of millions of hours in our games across console, mobile and PC during the holiday quarter, and we’re thrilled to see our titles driving excitement for more fans around the world,” CEO Andrew Wilson said in a statement on Electronic Arts earnings. “We’re expanding the reach of our top franchises across more geographies, our competitions are growing in participation and viewership, and we’re continuing to grow our network with more amazing games and content coming this quarter and beyond.”
Net bookings fell to $2 billion from $2.1 billion a year ago.
Electronic Arts updates guidance
For all of fiscal 2018, Electronic Arts expects net revenues to be about $5.1 billion with a change in deferred net revenue for online-enabled games amounting to about $50 million. The game maker guided for $3.4 billion in digital net revenue for the full year and about $1.7 billion in packaged goods and other net revenues.
EA also expects about $1.015 billion in net income for the full year. Management expects Electronic Arts earnings to be about $3.25 per share on a diluted basis for the full year. Their guidance includes a net negative impact of about 48 cents per share in connection with the tax reform bill. They also look for net bookings of about $5.15 billion.
For Q4 F2018, they expect Electronic Arts earnings to be about $1.86 per share on a diluted basis and net revenue to be about $1.53 billion with a change of about -$307 million in deferred net revenue. EA management also expects about $1.225 billion in net bookings for Q4.
EA stock jumped by about 4% in after-hours trades, rising as high as $123.69 after the bell.
