Electronic Arts is surging as Wall Street cheers on 'Apex Legends' winning 25 million gamers in a week

"Apex Legends"/Electronic Arts

• Electronic Arts announced late Monday that its new game "Apex Legends" hit 25 million gamers in a week.
• It took three months for 'Fortnite,' Apex's widely popular competitor, to reach 30 million players, according to Bernstein.
• Baird says Apex could generate as much as $500 million in revenue in fiscal 2020 based on the current user metrics.
• Watch Electronic Arts trade live.

Electronic Arts is rallying, up 8.65% to $105.65 apiece early Tuesday after Wall Street analysts sent out bullish views on the player data update of its latest game "Apex Legends."

The company announced late Monday that the number of gamers playing "Apex Legends" had crossed 25 million since it was launched on February 4, and over the weekend it had over 2 million concurrent players at the peak. It previously said more than 10 million players jumped into the game within three days of its debut.

Apex is considered a challenger to widely popular "Fortnite" in providing a free-to-play battle royale experience where multiple players fight for survival at the same time.

The user data released by EA impressed analysts across Wall Street, prompting them to raise their price targets.

"For reference, it took Fortnite 3 months to reach 30 million," Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger said in a note out on Tuesday. "AL's stunning success should also greatly reduce the frustration with management sometimes expressed by investors. AL demonstrates a brave innovation."

Juenger maintained an "outperform" rating and raised his price target to $120 (up from $91) - 14% above where shares were trading on Tuesday.

And, Baird analyst Colin Sebastian says Apex could generate as much as $500 million in revenue in fiscal 2020 based on sales of similar free-to-play titles and 25 million monthly active users, according to Bloomberg.

Sebastian raised his price target to $106 from $90 on the outperform-rated stock.

EA is up 31% so far this year.

Now read:

• Video-game maker Electronic Arts extends huge rally on the popularity of its latest game 'Apex Legends' (EA)
• Electronic Arts cuts revenue outlook after poor 'Battlefield' sales

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