Electronic Arts Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.19 (NASDAQ:EA)

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be given a dividend of 0.19 per share by the game software company on Wednesday, March 19th. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 26th.

Electronic Arts has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.8% per year over the last three years. Electronic Arts has a dividend payout ratio of 8.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Electronic Arts to earn $5.88 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.76 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.9%.

Electronic Arts Stock Performance

EA stock opened at $130.47 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 1.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.54, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.79. Electronic Arts has a 1 year low of $115.21 and a 1 year high of $168.50. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $145.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $147.54.

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The game software company reported $2.34 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.41 by ($1.07). Electronic Arts had a net margin of 14.12% and a return on equity of 18.56%. On average, research analysts predict that Electronic Arts will post 5.02 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Andrew Wilson sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.47, for a total transaction of $832,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,615 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,758,819.05. This trade represents a 8.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Vijayanthimala Singh sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.45, for a total value of $164,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 30,216 shares in the company, valued at $4,969,021.20. This trade represents a 3.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,500 shares of company stock worth $3,562,510. 0.22% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on EA. StockNews.com lowered Electronic Arts from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. BNP Paribas lowered Electronic Arts from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $125.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 27th. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Electronic Arts from $170.00 to $165.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Benchmark lowered their target price on Electronic Arts from $163.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $173.00 target price on shares of Electronic Arts in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Electronic Arts has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $155.24.

Electronic Arts Company 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.