Roblox shares sink on disappointing revenue and wider-than-expected loss

Roblox shares fell about 10% in extended trading on Tuesday after the kids’ video game company issued first-quarter results that trailed analysts’ estimates.

Here’s how the company did:

• Earnings: Loss of 27 cents, vs. loss of 21 cents as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
• Revenue: $631.2 million, vs. $636.6 million as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.

The revenue figure is what Roblox calls bookings, which include sales recognized during the quarter and deferred revenue.

Bookings declined by 3% in the quarter, a sign of how much Roblox’s business has cooled off from the pandemic, when kids were stuck at home and spending more time on their screens. Roblox 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 54.1 million average daily active users in the first quarter, up 28% from a year earlier but below the StreetAccount consensus of 55 million. Users spent 11.8 billion hours engaged in Roblox, the company said, up 22%.

Average bookings per daily active user slid 25% to $11.67. Analysts polled by StreetAccount had expected $11.65.

Roblox saw bookings swell past 200% during the pandemic, which shut down schools and offices. The stock was blazing hot in 2021, after the company’s direct listing in March. The shares began trading at $64.50, and briefly eclipsed $134 in November, around the time the Nasdaq peaked. Roblox’s market cap neared $80 billion.

The frenzy abated as the economy started reopening. And the market’s retreat this year has had an outsized impact on newly-public companies like Roblox. Shares of the gaming platform are more than 80% off their record high.

The company estimated that in April it had $221 million to $224 million in bookings, down 8% to 10%.

“While Covid and the subsequent re-opening have contributed to slowing growth in several of our metrics, based on third party data we believe we are gaining share on both users and hours relative to certain other companies in gaming and social media that compete for our users’ attention,” Roblox said in a letter to shareholders.”

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

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