Airbnb stock falls 11% after company forecasts revenue slowdown

In This Article:

Airbnb (ABNB) stock tumbled Wednesday as the company expects bookings and average daily rates to decline in the current quarter when compared to last year.

"Q2 is turning out to be a little bit tougher comp given Omicron last year, but we're seeing overall stable demand for the back half," Airbnb CFO David Stephenson said on the company's earnings call. Stephenson's comments came after the company reported first quarter results that beat expectations.

Airbnb stock closed down nearly 11% on Wednesday after experiencing its largest one-day drop since 2020 at the open, according to Bloomberg data.

Here are the notable numbers from the company's earnings report compared to Wall Street estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

Revenue: $1.8 billion actual versus $1.79 billion estimated

EPS: 18 cents actual versus 12 cents estimated

Nights and Experiences Booked: 121.1 million actual versus 122.4 million estimated

Q2 Revenue Guidance: $2.35 billion-$2.45 billion actual versus $2.42 billion estimated

Airbnb also announced a new $2.5 billion stock buyback.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky noted on the call that the company's most price sensitive costumers are in North America, particularly in the United States.

"The lowest price listings have the highest occupancy," Chesky said on the earnings call. "So yes, people do want low price listings. And we expect that as Airbnb rates continue to normalize, and hopefully, our rates do not increase as fast to hotels over the next couple of years that we're going to see continued increase in occupancy for more listings in Airbnb."

Analysts across Wall Street slashed their price targets in reaction to Airbnb's weaker than expected 2023 outlook. John Colantuoni an equity analyst at Jefferies who has a Buy rating on the stock, lowered his price target from $155 to $140. Colantuoni noted the primary concerns for Airbnb shares center around slowing Nights and Experiences growth and efforts to reduces prices to reignite demand.

"We will be closely watching for an inflection in demand," Colantuoni wrote in a note to clients.

A woman talks on the phone at the Airbnb office headquarters in the SOMA district of San Francisco, California, U.S., August 2, 2016.  REUTERS/Gabrielle Lurie
A woman talks on the phone at the Airbnb office headquarters in the SOMA district of San Francisco, California, U.S., August 2, 2016. REUTERS/Gabrielle Lurie · Gabrielle Lurie / Reuters

"Nights and Experiences Booked grew 19% in Q1 2023 compared to a year ago. Even with continued macroeconomic uncertainties, we have seen our highest number of active bookers, demonstrating both loyalty from our returning guests and a growing base of first-time bookers," the company wrote in its letter to shareholders. Adding: "Our current backlog of nights is approximately 25% stronger than a year ago."

Looking ahead, Airbnb is looking to increase host supply.