What happened
Shares of website-building platform Wix.com (WIX 1.69%) took a big hit on Wednesday, falling as much as 12.9%. As of 11:28 a.m. EST, the stock was down 12.4%.
The stock's pullback follows the company's fourth-quarter earnings release, which featured better-than-expected revenue and adjusted earnings per share. But investors may be hung up over management's worse-than-expected forecast for full-year revenue.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Wix reported fourth-quarter revenue of $164 million, up 39% year over year. This was ahead of management's guidance range for revenue to be between $161 million and $162 million. On average, analysts were expecting revenue of $162 million. The company's adjusted earnings per share was $0.42, up from $0.16 in the year-ago quarter and easily beating a consensus analyst forecast for $0.32.
"2018 marked our fifth consecutive year of greater than 40% revenue growth since our IPO in combination with record margin expansion, driving free cash flow of over $100 million," said Wix CFO Lior Shemesh in the company's fourth-quarter earnings release. "This combination of growth and profitability highlights our ability to generate positive returns on investments in our business."
The company's forecast for full-year 2019 revenue between $755 million and $761 million, however, disappointed. The midpoint of this guidance range is below analysts' consensus estimate for 2019 revenue of $761 million. In addition, this guidance implies 25% to 26% year-over-year revenue growth -- a meaningful deceleration from Wix's fourth-quarter revenue growth.
Check out the latest Wix earnings call transcript.
Now what
While Wix's full-year revenue outlook may not have lived up to analysts' view, management is optimistic about the future.
"In 2018 we rolled out more products than ever before," said Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami in the quarterly update, "and in 2019 we are looking forward to delivering these products to users and expanding our reach into new and exciting markets. We believe that these new products and markets will drive growth in the coming years."
