What happened
Twin beats were the fuel propelling the stock of ACV Auctions (ACVA -1.73%) on the second-to-last day of the trading week. Following the company's announcement of its first-quarter earnings after market hours on Wednesday, investors eagerly lapped up the shares. Consequently, ACV stock was quite the outperformer on Thursday, rising by more than 20%.
So what
For its first quarter, ACV booked revenue of $120 million, up a healthy 16% year over year. The online auto auctioneer's adjusted net loss had another major improvement at $5 million, or $0.03 per share, against the first-quarter 2022 loss of just over $20 million.
Both headline figures topped the average analyst projections. Prognosticators following ACV were estimating the company would earn slightly under $109 million on the top line, filtering down to a per-share adjusted net loss of $0.12.
Investors were clearly surprised by the convincing pair of beats, which ACV attributed to improved auto-market conditions and the expansion of its dealer partnership network. The company also said that prudent cost management played a role.
Now what
Management obviously thinks this momentum will continue. It raised its full-year guidance (another reason for the enthusiastic investor response) to reflect this. The company now believes that it will see revenue growth of at least 11%, landing at $468 million to $478 million for the entirety of 2023. The adjusted net loss is projected to be $27 million to $32 million.