What happened
Shares of Wayfair (W 1.96%) gained as much as 10% today after the company reported first-quarter earnings. The results beat expectations, particularly for the bottom line. As of 11:40 a.m. EDT, the stock was up 5%.
So what
Revenue in the first quarter increased 49% to $3.5 billion, topping the consensus estimate of $3.4 billion in sales. That resulted in adjusted earnings per share of $1, crushing the $0.23 per share in adjusted profits that Wall Street analysts were modeling for. The consumer discretionary company said active customers jumped 57% to 33.2 million as of the end of the quarter.
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"Wayfair's focus remains squarely on connecting all of the industry's customers and suppliers on our unique platform, which is custom-built to address the specific needs of shopping for the home," CEO Niraj Shah said in a statement. "Our platform model creates a flywheel where scale begets growth, which leads to further efficiency."
Now what
Wayfair has benefited as consumers shifted spending toward home furnishings amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and it's unclear if those purchasing patterns will continue as the crisis slowly subsides in various markets.
On the conference call with analysts, CFO Michael Fleisher provided some broad commentary on certain trends but did not offer specific revenue guidance. Many product categories that spiked early during the pandemic are now seeing some weakness, and second-quarter revenue is currently trending toward negative growth quarter-to-date. However, Wayfair believes that it can remain "strongly profitable" and margin should remain strong for years to come, according to Fleisher.
