Robinhood Markets Inc.’s stock roared more than 10% higher in the after-hours session Tuesday after the online trading platform swung to a quarterly profit and topped Wall Street expectations for its revenue, thanks to rising crypto deposits and more subscribers buying a premium service.
Robinhood
HOOD,
earned $30 million, or 3 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, contrasting with a loss of $166 million, or 19 cents a share, in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Revenue rose 24% to $471 million, thanks in part to an 8% increase in transaction-based revenue mostly related to cryptocurrencies, the company said.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected Robinhood to report a GAAP loss of a penny a share on revenue of $455 million.
Robinhood guided for a 2024 expense plan to include “growth investments in new products, features and international expansion while also getting more efficient in our existing businesses.”
It projected both GAAP and adjusted operating expenses to be in a range between $1.85 billion and $1.95 billion for the year.
“2023 was a strong year as our product velocity continued to accelerate, our trading market share increased, and we started to expand globally,” Robinhood Chief Executive Vlad Tenev said in a statement. “And we’re off to an even better start in 2024, as we’ve already brought in more funded customers and net deposits through the first half of [the first quarter] than we did in all of [the fourth quarter].”
Robinhood said that subscribers to its “Gold” premium subscription plan rose 25% year over year to 1.42 million in the quarter, while its average revenue per user (ARPU) was up 23% year over year to $81.
Robinhood stock ended the regular trading day down 1.4%. In the past 12 months, the shares have gained 19%, matching the gains for the S&P 500 index
SPX
in the same period.
