Pinterest Inc stock fell. In volatile after-hours trading Thursday after the company reported a loss in revenue and offered special guidance.
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It reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $201.2 million, or 29 cents per share, compared with net income of $17.5 million, or 3 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings were 53 cents per share.
Revenue improved 12% to $981.3 million, from $877.2 million last year.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet were, on average, expecting net earnings of 52 cents per share on revenue of $991 million.
Shares initially fell by about 23% immediately after the report was released, then turned into slight gains. The stock recently fell about 9%.
“We had a strong fourth quarter, leading to a transformative year for Pinterest,” Bill Reidy, Pinterest's CEO, said in a statement announcing the numbers. The number of global monthly active users rose 11% to an all-time high of 498 million year over year, thanks in large part to Gen Z users.
In a conference call with analysts late Thursday, Reddy said the company is working on an artificial intelligence-based programmatic advertising system. He added that Google will join Pinterest as a third-party ad integration partner. Amazon.com AMZN,
We have already collaborated with Pinterest.
Pinterest expects first-quarter revenue to range between $690 million and $705 million. FactSet analysts expect revenue of $702 million in the first quarter.
Julia Brough Donnelly, Pinterest's chief financial officer, noted a decline in food and beverage advertising during the fourth quarter, but said the first quarter is “off to a good start.”
Advertising spending played a big role in the earnings report As they did with Meta Platforms Inc. META, the parent company of Facebook,
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Meta and Google have reported big strides in ad revenue, creating a difficult comparison between Pinterest and others, analysts say.
“Pinterest's strong but unspectacular Q4 numbers should see some scrutiny from the market, which saw meta forecasts just last week,” Jeremy Goldman, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, said in an email.
Pinterest shares are up 64% over the past year, while the broader S&P 500 index SPX is up 22%.
