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Wix.com trades lower despite reporting a narrower than expected loss (WIX)

Published by

November 28, 2024
(GMT+2)

Wix.com (WIX -5%) is trading lesser today in spite of reporting a narrower than expected loss and revenue upside for Q1. The main culprit appears to be Q2 revenue guidance being a bit radiant; it is also concerning that WIX is no longer providing new user growth. The cloud-based website builder was a solid recipient of the pandemic as many small businesses hurried to set up a presence online. Its stock dashed as much as 250% from its March 2020 lows, although it has pulled back quite forcefully over the past couple of months.Turning to Q1 earnings, Wix reported a loss of $(0.54) per share, $0.10 better than analysts anticipated, while revenue increased 40.8% yr/yr to $304.1 mln. The Q2 outlook was okay but not outstanding at $308-312 mln, the mid-point of which was below consensus. Also, the 30-32% revenue growth guidance for Q2 was not quite as solid as the 35-37% growth guidance Wix offered for Q1 back in February.More importantly, Business Solutions revenue appears to be slowing. Growth slowed to 97% yr/yr compared to 107% in Q4. Wix’s Business Solutions segment is important to the growth story because it contains Wix Payments, Wix’s in-house payment gateway. Wix Payments is an alternative to companies such as Stripe and Paypal (PYPL). The benefit of Wix Payments is that the processing fees go to Wix.Finally, we were a bit concerned that Wix did not provide an update on the number of registered users and premium subscriptions. Wix provided this data throughout 2020. In Wix’s defense, perhaps with the company lapping surging user growth in 2020 pandemic, the comparison was not really a fair. We wish that Wix would at least compare this metric to 2019.In sum, Wix will be facing tough comparisons in 2021 as it laps the surge in business. It was seen in 2020 when small businesses were pushed to seek online alternatives fast and build out websites. Finally, we still like Wix as an e-commerce platform, especially as it scales Wix Payments, which could prove to be lucrative. Wix expects future collections to total $14.2 bln over the next ten years. Despite 2021 being a strong comparison for Wix, we think that as the world becomes increasingly digital, Wix stands to benefit considerably.On a final note, the stock stock has recently fallen pretty sharply, down 35% from its February 2021 highs. We think Wix is a victim of the rotation out of tech stocks and inflation fears (tech sector sold off yesterday on worrisome inflation data). As for today, we think the modest Q2 guidance is weighing on the stock, and the lack of user data may be concerning investors a bit.

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