3 key takeaways from Airbnb Q1 earnings report

Airbnb Inc. (NASDAQ: ABNB) reported a larger-than-expected loss in the fiscal first quarter. The company, however, topped estimates for revenue and gross bookings. Airbnb shares were reported about 0.75% down in after-hours trading on Thursday. The U.S firm went public last year in December at a per-share price of £99.10.

1. Financial performance

Airbnb generated £631.23 million of revenue in Q1, compared to £599.21 million last year. The vacation rental company reported £850 million of loss in the recent quarter that translates to £1.39 per share. In the same quarter last year, it had recorded £242.39 million of loss, or 93 pence per share.

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Adjusted EBITDA loss, the San Francisco-based firm added, printed at £41.70 million – a decline from £237.69 million in Q1 of the previous year. FactSet consensus for loss and revenue in the first quarter stood at 75 pence per share and £510.82 million.

Airbnb valued its gross bookings at £7.33 billion in the first quarter versus the year-ago figure of £4.84 billion. Analysts, on the other hand, had called for a lower £5.60 billion of gross bookings instead.

2. Guidance for the future

Airbnb refrained from giving its guidance for the future on Thursday due to the ongoing COVID-19 uncertainty. The Nasdaq-listed company, however, expressed confidence that travel and tourism will continue to recover in the upcoming months resulting in a significant annualised growth in bookings and revenue.

Analysts are calling for £704.46 million of revenue, £6.61 billion of gross bookings, and 46.26 pence of loss per share in Q2. Airbnb’s report comes a week after peer Expedia published its quarterly financial results.

3. Bernie McTernan’s comments on CNBC’s “Closing Bell”

Commenting on Airbnb’s earnings report on Thursday, analyst Bernie McTernan said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell”:

“With the 30% beat on bookings and better than expected EBITDA, the recovery is happening, and it is happening profitably. Airbnb is well-positioned for a better second half of the year. You can’t put a multiple on near-term profitability yet, but they are getting closer, and we think they have the potential in the consumer marketplace sector to be a leader in margins.”

“The reason why we are so bullish on Airbnb is the organic demand that they have on the platform. 90% of the users coming in are through unpaid channels. If you look at Google Trends, it just dwarves their competitors in terms of the amount of people they have on their platform. It’s just a very strategic asset that gives them pricing power,” he added.