Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 26th

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 paid 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 dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 26th.

Electronic Arts has raised its dividend by an average of 3.8% per year over the last three years. Electronic Arts has a 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 Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ EA opened at $132.00 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $144.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $147.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Electronic Arts has a twelve month low of $115.21 and a twelve month high of $168.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.62 billion, a PE ratio of 33.93, a PEG 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%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Electronic Arts will post 5.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Electronic Arts news, insider Vijayanthimala Singh sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.03, for a total value of $122,030.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 28,216 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,443,198.48. This represents a 3.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Jacob J. Schatz sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.30, for a total transaction of $244,950.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,360 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,814,688. This 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 worth $3,562,510 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on EA shares. DZ Bank raised Electronic Arts from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $135.00 to $177.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com cut Electronic Arts from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Electronic Arts from $145.00 to $142.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group upped their target price on Electronic Arts from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Roth Mkm decreased their target price on Electronic Arts from $158.00 to $134.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $155.24.

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.