What happened
A mere two days after spooking investors with news of deep job cuts, Robinhood Markets (HOOD 3.37%) delivered another stinger. The company reported its first-quarter earnings after trading hours on Thursday, and in a see-saw session the following day, its stock closed almost 3% lower after rising by as much as 6.9% over the course of the day.
So what
Well, your stock would probably fall too if you reported dynamics like this: For the quarter, Robinhood's total net revenue suffered a 43% year-over-year decline to $299 million. At least the situation is getting better on the bottom line where the next-generation securities brokerage posted a $392 million ($0.45 per share) net loss, compared to the yawning $1.4 billion shortfall in the year-ago quarter.
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Neither line item met analyst expectations. On average, prognosticators were expecting the financial services purveyor to earn nearly $356 million in total net revenue and book a per-share net loss of only $0.36.
Robinhood quoted its CFO Jason Warnick as explaining that "We're seeing our customers affected by the macroeconomic environment, which is reflected in our results this quarter."
Now what
Robinhood provided selected guidance for 2022, but it wasn't necessarily illuminating. The company said its operating expenses (which exclude share-based compensation) are expected to rise by 2% to 5% on a year-over-year basis.
While this doesn't shed a great deal of light on how the company might perform over the course of the year, it does indicate how much it might be saving with those job cuts; the previous guidance forecast 15% to 20% growth in costs.
