Riccitiello Buys Up $1 Million In EA Shares

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello recently purchased over $1 million in his company's stock, according to an SEC filing -- 42,500 shares at $24.50 each. It's not unusual for chief executives to make significant investments in their own companies, and such moves are often geared in part toward expressing the commitment of a company's leadership to deliver value to its investors. EA's most recent quarterly results were somewhat rocky; losses widened to $310 million even as revenues grew, and the company said it's laying off about 600 employees across all of its studios and global workforce. As part of that announcement, Riccitiello expressed caution at weakening retail and stressed the need to invest significantly -- to the tune of $150 million -- in alternative business models like digital distribution and online games as a pre-emptive measure. Analyst firms like Wedbush Morgan and Janco Partners lowered their estimates for the company's year in response, but maintain positive opinions of EA.