Electronic Arts Reports Q4 FY16 and Full Year FY16 Financial Results
Record Fiscal Year Non-GAAP Net Revenue, Digital Net Revenue, Gross Margin, Operating Margin, EPS and Operating Cash Flow
Completed Over $1 Billion of Share Repurchases During the Fiscal Year
"Leveraging our great portfolio of brands and live services has enabled us to break records across our key financial metrics. We expect to drive strong revenue, earnings and cash flow growth into the future."
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced preliminary financial results for its fourth fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2016.
“FY16 was a phenomenal year for Electronic Arts as we connected hundreds of millions of players to great new games, and helped them connect with each other through rich and dynamic live services,” said Chief Executive Officer Andrew Wilson. “The year ahead is packed with excitement. Fans are thrilled with the intense action and epic scale of Battlefield 1, our EA SPORTS titles will take major leaps in innovation, and we’ll bring new experiences from our most popular brands to more players on more devices.”
“We grew non-GAAP net revenue, profitability and cash flow to record highs,” said Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen. “Leveraging our great portfolio of brands and live services has enabled us to break records across our key financial metrics. We expect to drive strong revenue, earnings and cash flow growth into the future.”
News and ongoing updates regarding EA and our games are available on EA’s blog at
www.ea.com/news.
Selected Operating Highlights and Metrics:
EA was the #1 publisher on PlayStation®4 and Xbox One consoles in the Western World for fiscal year 2016 based on available sources and EA estimates.
EA was also the #1 most downloaded mobile game publisher in calendar year 2015, according to App Annie.
More than 54 million unique players engaged with our EA SPORTS™ console titles during fiscal year 2016, up 65% from last year.
Star Wars™ Battlefront™ expanded our player base as more than 15% of Star Wars™ Battlefront™ players were new to the EA ecosystem.
In Q4, there were 9.4 million unique players across EA’s Battlefield™ titles.
The Sims™ 4 player base grew by nearly two-thirds throughout the fiscal year, and The Sims FreePlay on mobile reached 200 million installs life-to-date.
Madden NFL Mobile monthly active players grew 30% in Q4 over the same quarter last year.
Star Wars™ Battlefront™, a successful new franchise, sold in more than 14 million units in fiscal year 2016.
Selected Financial Highlights:
For fiscal year 2016, GAAP net revenue was $4.396 billion of which 55% or $2.409 billion was digital, gross margin was 69.2%, operating margin was 20.4%, and GAAP diluted earnings per share was $3.50. During fiscal 2016, EA recorded a $453 million credit related to the reversal of a valuation allowance reserve on certain deferred tax assets. This credit increased our diluted GAAP earnings per share for fiscal 2016 by $1.37 per share to $3.50, but had no effect on non-GAAP earnings or cash flow.
For fiscal year 2016, non-GAAP net revenue was $4.566 billion of which 55% or $2.531 billion was digital, non-GAAP gross margin was 71.4%, non-GAAP operating margin was 28.5%, non-GAAP diluted earnings per share was $3.14 and operating cash flow was $1.223 billion. All of these are fiscal year records.
For the quarter, non-GAAP net revenue of $924 million was above guidance of $875 million. Diluted non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.50 was above guidance of $0.40.
EA’s FIFA, Madden NFL and Hockey Ultimate Team™ live services continued to perform well in Q4 as measured by non-GAAP net revenue, collectively up 26% year-over-year and up 33% on a constant currency basis.
EA repurchased 15.7 million shares in FY16 for $1.0 billion which includes 9.9 million shares in Q4 for $634 million.
