EA Downgraded By Citigroup

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Taz at PBbans posted this up. Thought it of interest, in light of conversations elsewhere:

-- Electronic Arts Inc. EA +2.17% was downgraded to a neutral rating by Citigroup, with its price target reduced from $19 to $14. In a note to clients, analyst Neil Doshi cited "limited catalysts" for the videogame publisher, despite noting that the stock is "near a trough multiple." EA shares have fallen more than 40% since the first of the year. Doshi wrote that the company's social gaming efforts "have had limited success thus far," and added the concern that active subscribers to its "Star Wars: The Old Republic" online multi-player game have fallen from 1.7 million to 1.3 million. "We think EA has a lot of potential, as it's the only publisher with meaningful participation across all platforms," Doshi wrote. "But for now, we're moving to the sidelines until EA can execute on these initiatives." Separately, EA announced that DreamWorks Studios has acquired the feature-film rights for its popular "Need for Speed" racing franchise. The studio is targeting a 2014 release for the film. EA shares were flat in early trades on Friday.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ea-downgraded-by-citigroup-sells-rights-for-movie-2012-06-22?siteid=yhoof2

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Click here: http://investor.ea.com/stockquote.cfm

Once site loads, wait for graph to open. 5-10 seconds.

[Zipperbag]

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/25130/ea_s_first_quarter_financial_results_show_that_pc_is_still_making_some_serious_bank/index.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

EA made $292 million from the Xbox 360, $276 million from the PC and $267 million from the PS3. This means that as one of the world's biggest publishers, EA made more money on the PC than they did from the PlayStation 3, which to me, is quite surprising. EA's surge in business for the PC is looking to be attributed from digital sales.
 
 

EA has made $342 million from digital sales, up considerably from $232 million last year. Physical sales represent $592 million, dropping from $647 million last year. So, we're seeing that more and more people are going digital, like myself, compared to buying physical copies of games. If this trend continues, we could see digital thrashing physical copies, and when (note that I'm not using the word if) this happens, we're going to see an interesting shift in the gaming world. This is coming from a company who has said that it's "inevitable" that they'll become a 100% digital company.http://www.tweaktown.com/news/24787/ea_says_it_s_inevitable_that_they_ll_become_a_100_digital_company/index.html
 

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Yeah, I'd expect to see a spike in digital sales. What choice do people have, w/ expansion pack sales and "pay to play" games?

But the digital sales angle is a bit off topic... EA stock is still woefully low. More bad news related to their latest Star Wars release: 

Electronic Arts has revealed that the number of people paying to play its online video game Star Wars: The Old Republic has dropped below one million.

The President of EA Labels Frank Gibeau said the Star Wars game would still break even so long as it maintained 500,000 subscribers, but admitted that its current performance was "not good enough".

"The message from players exiting the game is clear, 40% say they were turned off by the monthly subscription and many indicate they would come back if we offered a free-to-play model

full story here:
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19077238

Check out this graph:
When looking at it, keep in mind todays price is $11.60. Compare that to 2011 prices. Then look at 2007. 
http://investor.ea.com/stocklookup.cfm