Earnings Results: Robinhood stock tanks as trading app posts wider Q4 loss, weaker outlook

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Robinhood Markets Inc. stock tanked more than 10% in the extended session Thursday after the trading app closely associated with the “meme stocks” phenomenon swung to a wider-than-expected quarterly loss and saw lower securities-trading volumes.

Robinhood
HOOD,
-6.45%

said it lost $423 million, or 49 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, contrasting with net income of $13 million, or 2 cents a share, in the fourth quarter of 2020. Sales rose 14% to $363 million, the company said.

FactSet consensus called for a loss of 35 cents a share on sales of $376 million.

The number of monthly active users and the amount of assets under custody grew year-on-year, but average revenues per user decreased 39% for the quarter, Robinhood said.

That was thanks to lower per-user trading volumes for options and equities, as well as lower per-user interest earnings from securities lending due to declines in market rates earned on loaned securities, Robinhood said. That was partially offset by higher per-user trading volumes for cryptocurrencies, Robinhood said.

See also: Opinion: A 27-year-old truck driver just became Robinhood’s first big headache of 2022

Average revenues per user for the year fell 5% to $103, from $109 in 2020.

Robinhood guided for first-quarter sales of “less than $340 million,” assuming “incremental improvement in trading volumes versus what we have seen so far,” the company said. Analysts polled by FactSet expect sales of $444 million for the quarter.

Operating expenses are seen between 15% and 20% higher year-over-year, the company said.

Shares of Robinhood have lost around 37% in the past three months, compared with a loss of 5% for the S&P 500 index
SPX,
-0.54%

over the same period.