Roblox shows decline in important sales metric, shares head toward lowest prices yet
Bookings decline year-over-year and miss Street estimates, sending stock toward their lowest prices since March 2021 IPO.
Roblox Corp. shares dropped toward their lowest prices on record Tuesday as the social-gaming platform reported a decline in an important sales metric.
Roblox RBLX, -5.77% shares initially fell 10% in after-hours trading, but recovered somewhat to end the session down 4%, following a 5.8% decline in the regular session to close at $23.19; shares have never traded for less than $21.65 in a regular session but briefly dipped below that mark in extended trading. The stock finished 67% off the $69.50 it closed at on its first day of trading a little more than a year ago.
The company reported a first-quarter loss of $160.2 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with a loss of $134.2 million, or 46 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Roblox finished the quarter with about 588.5 million shares outstanding, compared with the year-ago quarter’s 291.1 million outstanding shares.
Revenue rose to $537.1 million from $387 million in the year-ago quarter, while bookings declined to $631.2 million from $652.3 million in the year-ago period.
Analysts, on average, had forecast a loss of 22 cents a share on bookings of $655.7 million. FactSet’s Wall Street consensus for revenue compares against Roblox’s reported bookings.
The company defines bookings as “revenue plus the change in deferred revenue during the period and other non-cash adjustments.” The importance of bookings comes into play as the company sells virtual currency on its site that may be considered deferred revenue.
Average daily active users, or DAUs, were 54.1 million, up 28% from the same year-ago period. For April, Roblox said DAUs rose 23% to 53.1 million from a year ago.
“We remained focused on delivering our innovation roadmap to unlock the full potential of the Roblox platform and drive long-term returns for investors,” Roblox Chief Executive David Baszucki said in a statement. “Over the past two quarters, we have launched a number of notable innovations including spatial voice and layered clothing that will continue driving user growth, engagement and monetization.”
Back in February, Roblox stock logged its worst one-day performance since it went public, dropping more than a quarter of its value in one trading session, following lighter-than-expected results as once-stuck-inside kids were finding other ways to spend their time.
