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Roblox misses on top and bottom, shares dip 12%

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The New York Stock Exchange welcomes executives and guests of Roblox (NYSE: RBLX), today, Wednesday, March 10, 2021, in celebration of its Direct Listing.
NYSE

Roblox reported results on Tuesday that missed analyst estimates on the top and bottom lines.

Here’s how the company did:

  • Loss per share: 30 cents vs. 21 cents expected, according to a survey of analysts polled by Refinitiv.
  • Revenue: $639.9 million vs. $644.4 million expected, according to Refinitiv.

Shares fell more than 14% in after-hours trading.

The revenue figure is what Roblox calls bookings, which include sales recognized during the quarter and deferred revenue. Bookings declined by 4% year over year. The company generates revenue from sales of its virtual currency called Robux, which players use to dress up their avatars and buy other premium features in the games.

Roblox reported 52.2 million average daily active users, about a million shy of the StreetAccount consensus. That figure is up from 21% a year earlier, but down from the 54.1 million daily active users it reported in the first quarter. Users spent more than 11 billion hours engaged in Roblox during the second quarter.

Roblox said average bookings per daily active user was $12.25, down 21% year over year.

The company also offered a peek into the third quarter. It said July daily active users hit a record high of 58.5 million, up 26% year over year. And bookings for the month fell between $243 million and $247 million, up 8% to 10% from July 2021.

The company saw bookings swell more than 200% during the pandemic when kids were spending more time on their screens while stuck at home. The stock was blazing hot in 2021, after Roblox’s direct listing in March. Its market cap neared $80 billion before peaking in November 2021. Shares are down more than 60% since their highs.

Chief Business Officer Craig Donato told CNBC’s Steve Kovach that Roblox is bullish on the future because of its investments in its employees, server capacity and global data centers.

“We’re very much in investment mode,” Donato said, “and that’s going to put a little bit of drag on earnings, but these are investments that are the right investments for us to make that will pay off in the three-to-five-year timeframe.”

Executives will discuss the results with analysts on a conference call starting at 8:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday.