Etsy's stock is dropping on earnings miss, slow start to fiscal year

By Jon Swartz

Etsy Inc.'s stock fell 8% in extended trading Wednesday after the company posted a quarterly earnings miss and warned of a soft beginning to its fiscal year.

The online marketplace (ETSY) reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $83.3 million, or 62 cents a share, compared with net income of $109.5 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Revenue rose 4% to $842.3 million from $807.2 million in the year-ago quarter.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected on average net income of 77 cents a share on revenue of $828 million.

Etsy executives cautioned on soft first-quarter revenue, but said results should improve. FactSet analysts are forecasting $654 million in the first quarter.

"GMS [Gross Merchandise Sales] for the first quarter of 2024 is currently estimated to decline in the low-single-digit range on a year-over-year basis," executives said in a letter to shareholders. "This guidance reflects our slow start to the quarter, and our current expectation that GMS for the core Etsy marketplace improves as we move through the rest of the quarter as a result of our planned product and marketing investments. However, if our trends fail to improve as we currently expect, this could become a mid-single-digit decline."

Shares of Etsy have fallen 40% this year, while the broader S&P 500 index SPX is up 25%.

-Jon Swartz

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02-21-24 2019ET

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