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Investing.com — Shares in Bumble Inc (NASDAQ:BMBL) rose at the open on Thursday, as the dating app company’s sunny outlook for 2023 put a heavy loss last year in the shade.
By 09:50 ET (14:50 GMT), Bumble stock was up 5.9%, having initially spiked as high as 8%.
Bumble, which pioneered the concept of a dating app where only women can initiate contact, said it expects revenue to grow by between 16%-19% this year from last year’s level of $903 million, with its main money-spinner, the eponymous Bumble app that accounts for over two-thirds of sales, growing by between 22% and 25%.
It also expects its basic underlying profitability to improve, saying its margin before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization will widen by around 1 percentage point. The underlying EBITDA margin last year was 25%.
“We believe we are on a path to scale our business and deliver profitable growth again in 2023,” chief financial officer Anu Subramanian said.
Analysts at Stifel pointed to the company’s expectations for growth in Europe in particular, where the Bumble app is already gaining traction in markets such as Germany, France and Spain. They noted that the deterioration in customer renewal rates, which had previously been a concern, appears to have stopped.
The company’s total paying users rose 10% to stand at 3.2M by the end of the year. Average revenue per paying customer rose 7.0% to $23.03.
It wasn’t clear what level of profitability the company expects on the bottom line: it has posted an operating loss in three of the last four years, and it lost another $114M net last year, thanks to a $159M deficit in the fourth quarter.
Bumble stock has struggled to live up to its initial buzz. The stock has lost two-thirds of its value since going public in 2021.
