EA plans $1 billion accelerated stock repurchase further demonstrating conviction in long-term growth of the business

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced preliminary financial results for its third quarter ended December 31, 2024.

“The record success of our EA SPORTS FC 25 Team of the Year event demonstrates our creative teams’ ability to adapt, innovate, and execute at scale,” said Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts. “As we build on this momentum across EA, we are confident in a return to growth in FY26 and beyond as we bring our next wave of iconic entertainment to players and fans worldwide.”

“Today we announced plans for a $1 billion accelerated share repurchase, which is expected to bring total stock repurchases to $2.5 billion within the first year of our $5 billion authorization,” said Stuart Canfield, CFO of Electronic Arts. “This reflects both our confidence in EA’s long-term strategy and our ability to balance investment in growth with capital returns.”

Selected Operating Highlights and Metrics

• Net bookings¹ for the quarter totaled $2.215 billion.
• Our Global Football franchise net bookings have grown more than 70% over the last five fiscal years, making it one of the biggest sports entertainment properties in the world.
• Our gameplay update for EA SPORTS FC^™ 25, released on January 16th, drove engagement levels above our expectations, with over two million Ultimate Team players re-activated from earlier in the launch cycle.
• EA SPORTS FC Mobile saw a double-digit increase in new players and engagement year-over-year.
• American Football saw double-digit growth in weekly active users year-over-year in the third quarter, and remains on pace to surpass $1 billion in net bookings for fiscal year 2025.
• EA unveiled Battlefield^™ Labs, a new initiative allowing player-driven testing and innovation ahead of the franchise’s expected fiscal year 2026 release.

Selected Financial Highlights and Metrics

• Net revenue was $1.883 billion.
• Net cash provided by operating activities was $1.176 billion for the quarter and $2.110 billion for the trailing twelve months.
• EA repurchased 2.4 million shares for $375 million during the quarter under the stock repurchase program, bringing the total for the trailing twelve months to 10.1 million shares for $1.450 billion.
• EA plans for an accelerated stock repurchase program of $1 billion, which is expected to bring the total stockholder return to $2.5 billion within the first year of our $5 billion authorization.

Dividend

EA has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.19 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on March 19, 2025 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 26, 2025.

Business Outlook as of February 4, 2025

Fiscal Year 2025 Expectations – Ending March 31, 2025

Financial outlook metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $7.250 billion to $7.400 billion.
  • Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately ($250) million.
• Net income is expected to be approximately $1.038 billion to $1.130 billion.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $3.90 to $4.25.
• Operating cash flow is expected to be approximately $1.800 billion to $1.900 billion.
• The Company estimates a share count of 266 million for purposes of calculating diluted earnings per share.

Operational outlook metric:

• Net bookings¹ is expected to be approximately $7.000 billion to $7.150 billion.

Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Expectations – Ending March 31, 2025

Financial outlook metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $1.682 billion to $1.832 billion.
  • Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately ($238) million.
• Net income is expected to be approximately $171 million to $263 million.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $0.65 to $1.00.
• The Company estimates a share count of 264 million for purposes of calculating diluted earnings per share.

Operational outlook metric:

• Net bookings¹ is expected to be approximately $1.444 billion to $1.594 billion.

Conference Call and Supporting Documents

Electronic Arts will host a conference call on February 4, 2025 at 2:00 pm PT (5:00 pm ET) to review its results for the third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 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 (855) 761-5600 (domestic) or (646) 307-1097 (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 February 11, 2025 at (800) 770-2030 (domestic) or (609) 800-9099 (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 February 4, 2025” 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 II, Item 1A of Electronic Arts’ latest Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q under the heading “Risk Factors”, as well as in other documents we have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024.

These forward-looking statements are current as of February 4, 2025. Electronic Arts assumes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement, 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 December 31, 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 December 31, 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 October 29, 2024 for the three months ended December 31, 2024 plus a comparison to the actuals for the three months ended December 31, 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.

⁴ The Company uses a tax rate of 19% internally to evaluate its operating performance and to forecast, plan and analyze future periods.

⁵ The mid-point of the range has been used for purposes of presenting reconciling items to operating margin.

⁴ 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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