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. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 26th.

Electronic Arts has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.8% annually over the last three years. Electronic Arts has a dividend payout ratio of 8.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EA opened at $130.47 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.43. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $145.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $147.54. Electronic Arts has a 1-year low of $115.21 and a 1-year high of $168.50. The company has a market cap of $34.22 billion, a PE ratio of 33.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.79.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Electronic Arts

In other news, insider Vijayanthimala Singh sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.45, for a total transaction of $164,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,216 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,969,021.20. This represents a 3.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Jacob J. Schatz sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.30, for a total value of $244,950.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,814,688. This trade represents a 6.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,500 shares of company stock valued at $3,562,510 over the last 90 days. 0.22% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Moffett Nathanson raised Electronic Arts from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group lifted their price target on Electronic Arts from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer cut their price target on Electronic Arts from $170.00 to $165.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Electronic Arts from $155.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Electronic Arts from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Electronic Arts has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average 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.