What happened
Niche fintech company Paysafe (PSFE 2.74%) had a fine Thursday on the stock market. Its share price sprinted 3.6% higher on the day following its latest quarterly-earnings release, providing a sharp contrast to the nearly 2% decline of the bear-ravaged S&P 500 index.
So what
For its fourth quarter of 2022, Paysafe earned revenue of just under $384 million, a 3% increase year over year. That was on the back of total payment volume that climbed 5% higher to hit slightly over $33 billion. On the other hand, non-GAAP (adjusted) net income fell to a bit more than $33 million ($0.54 per share) from the year-ago profit of almost $55.2 million.
Both headline results were well ahead of analyst estimates. On average, prognosticators tracking the stock were modeling only $375.5 million on the top line and $0.43 per share for adjusted net income.
In its earnings release, Paysafe quoted CEO Bruce Lowthers as saying that the fintech opportunely "recruited high-caliber talent, simplified and repositioned the business, and rebuilt our sales organization, which is driving early success in cross-selling and multi-product client wins."
Now what
Paysafe, which attracted much attention at the end of 2022 for a reverse stock split it effected, is clearly anticipating more victories. The company proffered guidance for both its current (first) quarter and the entirety of 2023.
For the latter period, it anticipates booking $1.58 billion to $1.60 billion in revenue (average analyst estimate: $1.58 billion) and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $452 million to $462 million.
Paysafe did not provide a net-income forecast for either the quarter or the year.
