Airbnb stock pops 10%+ on big profit beat, bullish Q1 forecast
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Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB) stock gained sharply in after hours trading on Tuesday after reporting stronger than expected Q4 profits, promoting the companyâs first annual profit.
For the fourth quarter, the San Francisco-based company posted $0.48 in earnings per share, well above the $0.27 consensus estimate. Meanwhile, a 24.2% jump in revenue from teh prior year quarter to $1.9B in revenue narrowly cleared the bar set by analysts.
âGuest demand remained strong throughout 2022. All regions saw significant growth in 2022 as guests increasingly crossed borders and returned to cities on Airbnb,â a shareholder letter released alongside the results read. âSupply growth was also strong in 2022. We ended the year with 6.6 million global active listings, which is over 900,000 more listings than we had in the beginning of the year, excluding China. This growth was driven by our global network, where demand drives supply, as well as product innovations that continue to attract new Hosts.â
Supply issues had been highlighted as a key concern among analysts ahead of the report.
While 88.2M nights booked was short of the 90.1M consensus estimate and gross booking value at $13.5B narrowly missed the $13.58B expectation, bottom line performance significantly exceeded consensus forecasts. The company reported a net income margin of 17% for the fourth quarter, reflecting an over 400% increase from Q4 2021, helping the company notch its first annual profit. 
Moving forward, the company expects to remain profitable and projects $1.75B to $1.82B in revenue for the first quarter driven by a resurgence in European travel. That range is comfortably above the consensus estimates that projected about $1.69B in revenue. We are excited to see the continued strong demand in Q1 2023. 
âIn Q1 2022, travel was significantly impacted by the Omicron strain of COVID-19 in January and to a lesser extent the war in Ukraine during February, making the earlier part of the quarter an easier year-over-year comparison than the end,â the shareholder letter explained. âIn Q1 2023, we expect Nights and Experiences Booked year-over-year growth to be nearly as strong as Q4 2022.â
Shares of Airbnb (ABNB) rose 11.37% shortly after the results were announced.
Read more on the details of the quarter.