Stitch Fix disappoints shareholders with weak guidance

Stitch Fix Inc (NASDAQ: SFIX) reported strong results for its fiscal first quarter on Tuesday. Shares still tanked 20% in extended trading on weaker-than-expected guidance for the future.

Q1 results

Stitch Fix said its net loss printed at $1.8 million in Q1 that translates to 2 cents per share. In the comparable quarter of last year, it had posted $9.5 million in net income or 9 cents per share. At $581.2 million, its quarterly revenue noted an about 18.5% annualised growth.

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According to FactSet, experts had forecast 14 cents of per-share loss on $570.8 million in revenue. The personal styling company reported $38.2 million in adjusted EBITDA versus $17.5 million expected.

Active clients

Stitch Fix had 4.18 million active clients as of the end of Q1, lower than 4.23 million expected but 11% higher than last year. Net revenue per active client was up 12%. According to CEO Elizabeth Spaulding:

It’s early days; we’re just opening up that new customer experience, but we’re in the game. This is now opening up the ecosystem, and it will absolutely be a multiquarter transformation. But we’re deeply committed to that building phase.

Future outlook

For the fiscal second quarter, Stitch Fix forecasts negative $5.0 million to positive $5.0 million in adjusted EBITDA on up to $520 million in revenue. In comparison, analysts were calling for $5.5 million in adjusted EBITDA on $585 million in revenue.

The California-based company also lowered its guidance for financial 2022 as a whole. It now expects under 10% growth in revenue and up to 2.0% increase in adjusted EBITDA margin. Spaulding said:

We’re in this big learning phase of onboarding new clients to the Freestyle and the Fix experience. And there’s this broader supply chain backdrop. We wanted to make sure we were being appropriately conservative for the year.