Adyen reported a big miss on first-half sales Thursday. The news drove a $20 billion rout in the company’s market capitalization .
Pavlo Gonchar | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Shares of European online payments giant Adyen jumped on Thursday, after the company reported strong sales growth and better-than-expected profit for 2023.
Adyen, which competes with Stripe, PayPal, and Block, told shareholders in its 2023 annual letter that it had slowed the pace of its hiring to counter concerns that it was spending too aggressively on expanding its team, while its margins were being compressed.
Shares of the company were up more than 22% as of 6:40 a.m. ET. Adyen is due to hold an earnings call at 9 a.m. ET.
Here’s how the company did in its full-year results:
Net revenue: 1.626 billion euros ($1.75 billion), up 22% year-on-year. That’s broadly in line with expectations of 1.636 billion euros, according to LSEG, formerly Refinitiv
EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization): 743.0 million euros, up 2% year-on-year. Analysts had forecast EBITDA of 254.3 million euros, per LSEG
Adyen said its net revenue growth was driven by “continued growth across our existing customer base consistent with our underlying land-and-expand fundamentals.”
The company also said it “significantly expanded” its partnership with a single, unnamed existing digital customer, which contributed to better sales growth overall.
Adyen announced new global partnership deals with fintech firm Klarna and music streaming platform Spotify last year.
The company said that it gradually slowed down the pace of hiring significantly in the second half of the year, and that it was focusing on hiring outside of Amsterdam across tech and commercial teams.
The move intended to address investor concerns that the company was spending too aggressively on hiring while peers were cutting back on their capital expenditure.
“Without being specific on 2024, but confident commentary on mid-term…
Read the full article here
