What happened
Shares of Katapult Holdings (KPLT 0.17%) shot way up on Tuesday morning, peaking at an overnight gain of 28.4%. The hyperautomated provider of lease transactions for American retailers and consumers posted decent third-quarter results early Tuesday. By 11:47 a.m. EST, the supercharged jump had cooled down somewhat to a single-day return of 18%.
So what
Katapult's third-quarter sales landed at $71.7 million, just above the $71.2 million result from the year-ago period. However, the bottom line swung from a $0.21 net profit per diluted share to a net loss of $0.04 per share. The negative earnings move resulted from Katapult's operating expenses nearly doubling year over year as the company started scaling up its operations.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
Tuesday's jump was impressive, but it didn't come close to making up for Katapult's downward trend since hitting the stock market in June. Share prices have plunged 63% lower since June 9, when the company performed its merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) known as FinServ Acquisition Corp.
I'm intrigued by Katapult's focus on powering financial transactions with artificial intelligence and machine learning, but the company stands a long way away from sustained profits or meaningful revenue streams. This stock may eventually disrupt its chosen niche of the financial market. Right now, the question marks around Katapult's future outweigh the potential upside. I'm not a buyer of Katapult shares today.