Etsy shares soar after earnings beat

shares etsy It rose as much as 16% in extended trading Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected results for the fourth quarter. Shares are already up 10% during regular trading, with shares posting a Marching late in the day After landing early in the day after news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Here’s how the company did:

• gains: $1.11 for 79 cents expected, according to analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.
• Revenues: $717 million versus the expected $685 million.

Etsy said it had 96.3 million active buyers on the platform as of the fourth quarter, slightly above analysts’ expectations of 95.6 million.

Revenue growth slowed to 16% year over year during the quarter. Etsy sales growth exceeded 100% in 2020, but It has slowed down in recent quarters.

Etsy said it expects first-quarter revenue to be between $565 million and $590 million, while Wall Street forecast revenue of $630 million. Total merchandise sales for the quarter are expected to be between $3.2 billion to $3.4 billion, which is below the consensus estimate of $3.5 billion. But investors appeared unfazed by the mediocre outlook, focusing instead on the big beats in the fourth quarter.

Etsy chief financial officer Rachel Glaser blamed GMS’s weak first-quarter forecast on tough comparisons to the same period last year, when it saw an increase in orders linked to the pandemic, as well as increased spending linked to government stimulus.

E-commerce companies like Etsy, ShopifyAnd the ebay And the Weaver All of them have seen their revenue increase during the coronavirus pandemic. Amid the lockdowns, many consumers have limited trips to the store to avoid the spread of the virus and turned to online retailers to make essential and non-essential purchases.

Glaser said she believes that Etsy, which operates an online marketplace known for handmade and personalized goods, will be able to continue growing its business in the post-pandemic world.

“Even without the significant tailwind of stimulus checks and shutdowns, our guidance for the first quarter of 2022 reflects our expectation that we will retain all of the gains made in 2021 – indicating our belief in continued growth in the past two years,” Glaser said. “Furthermore, assuming stable macroeconomic conditions, we currently expect lower year-over-year GMS growth in the first half of 2022 and higher GMS growth in the second half, given the more difficult comparisons in the first half.”

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