Westerkirk Capital Inc. Purchases New Shares in Electronic Arts Inc. $EA

Westerkirk Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,100 shares of the game software company’s stock, valued at approximately $655,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in EA. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Electronic Arts by 197.5% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,916,693 shares of the game software company’s stock valued at $421,524,000 after buying an additional 1,936,313 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in Electronic Arts during the 1st quarter worth $225,102,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Electronic Arts in the 1st quarter valued at $203,537,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Electronic Arts by 62.7% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,253,505 shares of the game software company’s stock valued at $470,197,000 after acquiring an additional 1,254,194 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Electronic Arts by 176.6% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,862,898 shares of the game software company’s stock valued at $297,465,000 after acquiring an additional 1,189,455 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on EA. UBS Group set a $210.00 price target on Electronic Arts and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Electronic Arts from $166.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Electronic Arts in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Arete Research set a $192.00 price objective on shares of Electronic Arts in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $210.00 target price (up from $170.00) on shares of Electronic Arts in a research note on Monday, September 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Electronic Arts has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $181.64.

Insider Transactions at Electronic Arts

In other news, CFO Stuart Canfield sold 6,500 shares of Electronic Arts stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.40, for a total transaction of $1,322,100.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 5,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,045,476. This trade represents a 55.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Jeff Huber sold 79,381 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.17, for a total value of $15,969,075.77. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 134,869 shares of company stock valued at $26,878,477 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Electronic Arts Price Performance

EA stock opened at $203.24 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $50.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $199.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $173.32. Electronic Arts Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.21 and a 1 year high of $203.75.

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

Electronic Arts Announces Dividend

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

About Electronic Arts

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.