Investors Try to Look Past EA’s ‘Battlefield V’ Delay

This past week, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) saw its shares slump after it announced that it would be delaying one of its flagship games. Along with delaying its “Battlefield V” launch date, the firm also updated its outlook as well. Overall investors sent the shares lower, and analysts seemed to agree in their response.

Essentially, the company is moving the launch of “Battlefield V” out by four weeks, but this will push some net bookings out of fiscal year 2019 and into fiscal 2020.

EA updated fiscal year 2019 net bookings guidance from $5.55 billion to $5.20 billion. About $115 million of this change is driven by the movement in foreign exchange rates.

Management has said that the company is currently evaluating the impact that these developments will have on EA’s fiscal year GAAP guidance and quarterly phasing of net bookings, and it will provide that information on EA’s next earnings call in October.

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Here’s what analysts had to say:

• Benchmark cut its price target to $153 from $164.
• BMO Capital Markets cut its price target from $162 to $140.
• KeyBanc maintained it as Overweight but cut its target to $137 from $168.
• SunTrust Robinson Humphrey cut its price target to $140 from $155
• Merrill Lynch downgraded it to Neutral from Buy and lowered its target from $159 to $126.
• Morgan Stanley maintained an Equal Weight rating but lowered its target to $122 from $130.
• UBS Cut maintained a Buy rating but cut its price target to $166 from $176.

Shares of EA traded at $114.40 on Friday, with a consensus analyst price target of $150 and a 52-week trading range of $99.63 to $151.26.

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