EA profit drops 38% but beats Wall Street targets

Electronic Arts Inc. posted a 38% drop in quarterly profit but beat Wall Street targets, overcoming fears that holiday shortages of new video game consoles had damped software sales.

Shares rose 3% after the Redwood City, Calif.-based video game company, known for its blockbuster franchises such as “Madden NFL,” “Need for Speed” and “The Sims,” posted fiscal third-quarter net income of $160 million, or 50 cents a share, compared with $259 million, or 83 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose nearly 1% to $1.28 billion in the important holiday shopping quarter.

Results from the most recent quarter, which ended Dec. 31, included an after-tax, stock-based compensation charge of $28 million, or 9 cents a share. Excluding items, EA’s profit was 63 cents a share.