Niraj Shah, CEO, Wayfair
Ashlee Espinal | CNBC
Online furniture retailer Wayfair‘s net loss widened in the first quarter as its sales surged nearly 20%, with more people flocking to its website to furnish their home offices and bedrooms during the coronavirus pandemic.
Its shares were down more than 3% in premarket trading following the announcement.
Here’s how the company did in the first quarter ended March 31:
- Earnings per share: A loss of $2.30, adjusted
- Revenue: $2.33 billion
“The broader market disruption has highlighted the many differentiated advantages we have built as the e-commerce leader in Home over the last two decades,” Chief Executive Niraj Shah said in a statement.
“We are making significant strides toward profitability by driving gross margin expansion, increasing marketing efficiencies, and gaining leverage on operating expenses,” he added.
Wayfair reported a net loss of $285.87 million, or $3.04 a share, compared with a net loss of $200.39 million, or $2.20 per share, a year ago.
Excluding one-time items, Wayfair lost $2.30 per share.
Net revenue grew nearly 20% to $2.33 billion from $1.94 billion a year ago.
The company said it delivered 9.9 million orders during the quarter, up 21% year-over-year. It said repeat customers placed 6.9 million orders, representing an increase of almost 28%. Average order value dropped $2 from a year ago, to $235 per order.
Analysts expected the company to report a loss of $2.60 per share, adjusted, on revenue of $2.31 billion, according to a poll by Refinitiv.
It is difficult to compare reported earnings to analysts’ estimates for Wayfair’s quarter, however, as the pandemic continues to hit global economies and makes earnings impact difficult to assess.
The company said it ended the first quarter with cash, cash equivalents, and short- and long-term investments on hand of $891 million.
As of Monday’s market close, Wayfair shares are up more than 48% this year. It has a market cap of about $12.7 billion.