Electronic Arts Falls After Cowen Slashes Titanfall 2 Expectations

The shares of Electronic Arts (EA) fell on Friday after the video game maker was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform by research firm Cowen, which predicted that sales of the company’s Titanfall 2 game would come in significantly below its previous expectations.

TITANFALL OUTLOOK: Data indicates that 5M-6M units of Titanfall 2 will be sold, reported Cowen analyst Doug Creutz. Consequently, the analyst slashed his estimate of final Titanfall unit sales to 6M from his previous outlook of 9M. Creutz blames the game’s disappointing performance on the timing of its launch, as it was released shortly after Activision’s (ATVI) Call of Duty game and shortly before Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 1 game.

OVERALL FORECAST: The disappointing Titanfall sales will be somewhat offset by stronger than expected sales of Battlefield 1, according to Creutz. He raised his estimate of Battlefield 1 unit sales to 16.5M from 14M. Electronic Arts’ overall fiscal 2018 results will have a “lower ceiling,” but the company will still “comfortably” meet its guidance, according to the analyst. The fact that Battlefield 1’s gross margins are higher than those of Titanfall, due to the lack of developer royalties on Battlefield, will boost Electronic Arts’ overall results, the analyst explained. However, Creutz cut his price target on EA shares to $82 from $96.

PRICE ACTION: Electronic Arts closed down 3.95% to $79.45 per share on Friday.