Virtus Advisers LLC Makes New Investment in Electronic Arts Inc. $EA

Virtus Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 1,230 shares of the game software company’s stock, valued at approximately $196,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of EA. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Electronic Arts by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,420 shares of the game software company’s stock worth $500,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares during the period. Beta Wealth Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Electronic Arts by 3.0% in the first quarter. Beta Wealth Group Inc. now owns 3,503 shares of the game software company’s stock valued at $506,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL increased its stake in shares of Electronic Arts by 25.7% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 13,971 shares of the game software company’s stock valued at $2,019,000 after purchasing an additional 2,855 shares during the period. Raiffeisen Bank International AG raised its holdings in shares of Electronic Arts by 9.8% during the first quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG now owns 40,669 shares of the game software company’s stock valued at $5,867,000 after buying an additional 3,641 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ING Groep NV boosted its position in shares of Electronic Arts by 3,477.8% during the first quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 1,163,747 shares of the game software company’s stock worth $168,185,000 after buying an additional 1,131,220 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Electronic Arts

In related news, CFO Stuart Canfield sold 1,500 shares of Electronic Arts stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $302,475.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 5,595 shares in the company, valued at $1,128,231.75. The trade was a 21.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Andrew Wilson sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.05, for a total value of $1,005,250.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 48,858 shares in the company, valued at $9,822,900.90. This trade represents a 9.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 137,369 shares of company stock worth $27,307,702. 0.24% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on EA. Oppenheimer cut Electronic Arts from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Arete Research set a $192.00 price objective on shares of Electronic Arts in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of Electronic Arts from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Cowen downgraded shares of Electronic Arts from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Arete upgraded shares of Electronic Arts from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $192.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Electronic Arts currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $181.64.

Electronic Arts Stock Performance

NASDAQ:EA opened at $201.93 on Monday. Electronic Arts Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.21 and a twelve month high of $203.75. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a 50-day moving average of $198.30 and a 200-day moving average of $172.58. The firm has a market cap of $50.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.74.

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The game software company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by ($0.07). Electronic Arts had a return on equity of 15.30% and a net margin of 12.14%.The business had revenue of $1.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.11 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Electronic Arts Inc. will post 4.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Electronic Arts Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 3rd. Electronic Arts’s dividend payout ratio is 22.22%.

Electronic Arts Profile

Electronic Arts Inc develops, markets, publishes, and distributes games, content, and services for game consoles, PCs, mobile phones, and tablets worldwide. It develops and publishes games and services across various genres, such as sports, racing, first-person shooter, action, role-playing, and simulation primarily under the Battlefield, The Sims, Apex Legends, Need for Speed, and license games from others, including FIFA, Madden NFL, UFC, and Star Wars brands.