S&P praise EA's line-up, raise stock rating to Buy

One of the world's most respected investment analysis firms, Standard and Poors, has picked out Electronic Arts as a key growth stock for the next year - raising its estimate on the publisher to Buy from Hold in the process.

Standard and Poors analyst Jonathan Rudy lifted the company's rating of EA from three stars to four yesterday evening, commenting that the market leading publisher's recent decline - which came after a profit warning at the start of this year - appears to be over.

"We believe shares [in Electronic Arts] have reached attractive valuation levels," he commented. "We expect Electronic Arts will benefit significantly from the buildout of next-generation hardware consoles, with the Xbox 360 expected to launch on November 22nd and PlayStation 3 anticipated to launch next spring."

Rudy also praised EA's line-up of franchises, describing it as "the most diversified brand library in the industry."

He picked out Madden NFL Football, FIFA Football, James Bond, Harry Potter and Tiger Woods Golf as franchises of particular note. Updates to all of those franchises will be launched, or have already been launched, this year.