Etsy shares soar after the fourth-quarter earnings beat

February 28, 2022: -Shares of Etsy climbed as much as 18% in extended trading Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected results for the fourth quarter. Shares had already risen 10% during regular trading, as stocks staged a late-day rally after the first plunge on news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Etsy says that it had 96.3 million active buyers on the platform in the fourth quarter, a touch higher than analysts’ projected 95.6 million.

Revenue growth is slowing to 16% year by year during the quarter. Etsy sales growth topped 100% in 2020 but have decelerated in the latest quarters.

The digital retailer said that it expects first-quarter revenue to come in amid $565 million and $590 million, as Wall Street projected revenue of $630 million. Gross merchandise sales in the quarter are projected to be in the range of $3.2 billion to $3.4 billion, which is less than consensus estimates of $3.5 billion.

But investors appeared to be unfazed by the middling expectations, focusing instead on the fourth-quarter earnings and sales results.

Etsy CFO Rachel Glaser is blaming the weak first-quarter GMS outlook on tough comparisons with the year-earlier period when the company had a pandemic-related boost in orders and an increase in spending tied to government stimulus.

E-commerce companies such as Etsy, Shopify, eBay, and Wayfair have all experienced a revenue lift during the worst months of the coronavirus pandemic. Around lockdowns, many consumers curbed trips to the store to avoid spreading the virus and turned to online retailers for essential and nonessential purchases.

“Even without the significant tailwinds of stimulus checks and lockdowns, our first quarter 2022 guidance reflects our expectation that we will keep all of the gains made in 2021, which indicates our belief in the durability of the previous two years’ growth,” Glaser said. “Furthermore, assuming stable macroeconomic conditions, we expect lower GMS growth year over year in the first half of 2022 and higher GMS growth in the second half, given the challenging comparisons in the first half.”