What happened
Shares of Cypriot-registered (but really Russian) Qiwi (QIWI 9.88%) exploded higher in Monday trading, closing the day up 20.9% after beating expectations for fiscal Q2 earnings this morning.
Analysts had hoped Qiwi, a specialist in online and mobile electronic payments, would earn $0.30 per diluted share on sales of $74.2 million for the quarter. Instead, it reported a monster $0.43 per share profit -- nearly half-again as much as analysts had predicted -- on adjusted net revenue of $88.2 million.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
That revenue increased 23% year over year, led by 35% growth in payment services, which include such things as digital wallets and bill payment from self-serve kiosks.
Earnings per share increased 77% in ruble terms, and the company said its self-calculated "adjusted net profit" more than doubled -- up 125%.
Now what
Qiwi also updated full-year guidance, predicting that adjusted net revenue will grow 11% to 16% this year in comparison with 2018, while payment services growth decelerates to a range of 23% to 27%. Adjusted net profit is predicted to grow even faster -- 40% to 50%. At the midpoint, that is even somewhat ahead of the 43% profit growth that Wall Street is looking for.
In other words, after beating expectations in Q2, Qiwi looks set to go on beating them all year long.
