Robinhood Markets (HOOD) is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday after the closing bell, as shares of the commission-fee trading platform have been trading at all-time lows.
Here are consensus estimates expected by Wall Street analysts, according to Bloomberg data.
Adjusted earnings (loss) per share: -.42 cents compared to -$2.06 reported in Q3
Revenue: $370.92 million compared to $364.92 million in Q3
The trading platform is expected to give an update on its new crypto wallet, which began beta testing on Jan. 20. Robinhood has been laser focused on rolling out the new crypto product as it aims to expand its platform and become a destination wallet for its customers.
The company saw a slowdown in trading in the third quarter of last year with crypto revenue falling 78% from the prior three-month period. In the second quarter, Robinhood posted record revenue from crypto transactions buoyed by massive popularity in Dogecoin (DOGE-USD).
Shares of the investing platform are down about 60% from their July IPO price of $38, amid a slowdown in retail trading and less stimulus cash on hand. Investors have also been unloading stocks that benefited during the pandemic amid continuing inflation and expected rate hikes from the Fed.
“Robinhood had all of the tailwinds that you could want running up to their IPO. The problem that they’ve had is that all of those basically have unwound in the last eight to 10 months,” Hugh Tallents, senior partner at management consultancy cg42, told Yahoo Finance.
“They had five years of business plan success baked into that IPO price. Now you’re starting to see it valued more like a fin, than a tech, and that multiple isn’t attractive necessarily,” Tallents added.
Last year Robinhood faced backlash over its decision to temporarily restrict trading in video game retailer GameStop (GME) and other so-called meme stocks. The trading app then faced regulatory scrutiny over the gamification of stock trading, and its use of payment for order flow (PFOF), where brokers funnel trade orders to market makers and receive a fee for their execution. More recently, Robinhood has depended less on the controversial practice as a way to bring in money, with a decline in PFOF as a percentage of revenue quarter over quarter.
With its market cap sitting just below $11 billion, and roughly 22.5 million active users, the company may be starting to look like an attractive takeover target.
One scenario could be “someone like a PayPal who have said that they are interested in getting into the brokerage space, might pick them up for cents on the dollar as it relates to the IPO,” Tallents said.
“Certainly they’re a decent fit with them as far as lower balance, higher frequency transaction mindset, engagement mindset, technology first, potential to scale,” he added.
The stock has eight Buy, seven Hold, and two Sell ratings from analysts, with an average price target of $29 per share.
Ines is a markets reporter covering stocks from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Follow her on Twitter at @ines_ferre
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