What happened
Shares of Etsy, Inc. (ETSY 1.23%) rose 18.4% in February, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The e-commerce stock bucked trends thanks to strong fourth-quarter earnings results and ended the month with double-digit gains despite dramatic sell-offs for the market to close out the month.
Etsy shares jumped after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 27 and delivered results that came in well above the market's expectations. The company recorded earnings per share of $0.25 on sales of $270 million, while the average analyst estimate had targeted per-share earnings of $0.16 on revenue of roughly $265 million.
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So what
Etsy's fourth-quarter sales were up 35% year over year, with the number of active sellers on the platform climbing 27.6% year over year and the number of active buyers up 17.5%. Services revenue was up roughly 65% to reach $80.3 million, and gross merchandise sales (GMS) for the quarter grew 32.8% year over year to come in at roughly $1.65 billion. GMS for the full-year period was $4.97 billion -- up 26.5% annually.
For 2020, the company is guiding for GMS to be between $6.2 billion and $6.4 billion -- good for growth of roughly 26.5% at the midpoint of the target. Revenue is projected to be between $1.04 billion and $1.06 billion, representing 28.5% annual growth at the midpoint. Management expects non-GAAP (adjusted) EBITDA for the year will come in between $220 million and $235 million on an adjusted EBITDA margin of roughly 21.5%.
Now what
Etsy shares are down roughly 2% in March trading so far, which is still a relatively impressive performance when viewed in the context of steep sell-offs for the broader market due to plummeting crude oil prices and mounting concerns about the economic impact of the novel coronavirus.
Etsy shares trade at roughly 49 times this year's expected earnings and 6.5 times expected sales.
