What happened
StoneX Group (SNEX 2.84%) was hardly a rock of a stock on Tuesday. After the financial services company reported its latest quarterly results following market close the previous day, investors traded the shares down by nearly 15% today.
So what
For its fourth quarter of fiscal 2021, StoneX posted net operating revenue of almost $262 million, which represented a 16% improvement over the same quarter a year ago. The story was much different on the bottom line, however, with net profit plummeting by 91% to $7.3 million, or $0.36 per diluted share.
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StoneX is not a stock that is followed by many analysts. According to Business Insider, the one prognosticator tracking it was expecting less than $245 million on the top line, but a much higher per-share net profit of $1.44.
On the bright side, StoneX managed to increase its take from several important revenue-generating segments. These included listed derivatives, where it grew sales by 9% to almost $90 million, and securities transactions (up 11% to more than $112 million).
In a conference call with analysts, CEO Sean O'Connor said, "During the September quarter, market conditions were less beneficial than in prior quarters with generally less of a volatility tailwind than a year ago or even earlier in the fiscal year."
He added that the financial services company's results under generally accepted accounting principles were also affected by a large one-time gain stemming from the acquisition of privately held peer Gain Capital Holdings.
Now what
Given that, investors were not cheered at all by the steep fall in StoneX's headline net income. They might also be concerned that the company did not proffer guidance for either the current quarter or the new fiscal year.
