EA Quarterly Profits

Video-game publisher Electronic Arts adjusted quarterly profit handily beat analysts' estimates, lifted by demand for high-margin digital downloads of its games such as "Battlefield 1".

The results pushed up the company's shares nearly 4 percent to $99.70 in after-market trading on Tuesday, putting them on track to open at a record high.

EA also forecast current-quarter adjusted profit above analysts' average estimates and said it would buy back up to $1.2 billion of shares over a two-year period.

Sales from EA's digital business surged 30.6 percent to $934 million in the fourth quarter ended March 31, as players increasingly buy games online rather than physical copies at retail stores.

However, EA's profit fell to $566 million, or $1.81 per share, in the quarter, from $899 million, or $2.79 per share, a year earlier.

The year-earlier quarter included an income tax credit of $453 million.

Excluding items, EA reported a profit of 85 cents per share, handily beating the average analysts' estimate of 75 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company's revenue rose 16.7 percent to $1.53 billion in the quarter.

However, on an adjusted basis, revenue of $1.09 billion was in line with analysts' expectation.

EA released its action role-playing videogame "Mass Effect: Andromeda" toward the end of its fourth quarter, with the game hitting No. 3 on market research firm NPD's March list for top-selling games in the United States.

The company said it ended up deferring about $53 million in "Mass Effect: Andromeda" sales from the fourth quarter into the first quarter, because of deluxe editions of the game, which triggered a revenue deferral.