Airbnb shares fell following its recent earnings report. The home-rental company beat the second-quarter top line — 56 cents against the Refinitiv estimate of 43 cents. However, it fell short in revenue, but not by much: $2.10 billion vs. the $2.11 billion estimate. Airb2b was down close to 9% in after-hours trading. The company hopes to remain steady in Q3 with 25% year-over-year growth expected.


Closing Bell

Airbnb Shares Fall on Q2 Earnings

well it's a beat on the top line but not the bottom line. Revenue came in a little short for Airbnb earnings per share came in at 56 cents. The street was expecting 43 cents according to refinitiv estimate but revenue only came in at 2.1 billion. The street was expecting it to be a little higher at 2.11 billion. And I think that's where we're seeing shares go down, we're seeing shares go down as a result. I think the chart said we were down a little bit north of 4% at this time. Now there is some interesting points to this report, one of it being the fact that they do expect that Q3 will show the same rate of year over year growth when it year over year growth especially when it comes to nights booked. And also um the number of experiences booked right now, they're seeing about 25% year over year growth so it should remain steady for the the year. I know people were keeping a close eye on what Q. Three would look like, especially with inflation and other macroeconomic headwinds heading towards this company that was really reliant on travel and people using that discretionary spending on more leisure activities. The other thing I thought was interesting is the fact that they are initiating a stock repurchase program. Um They're gonna reach us up to $2 billion of class a common stock. We should know more details as we get a little bit more with the letters to shareholders and a little bit more on their call later today. Um They do feel though however in Q. Two due to the strengthening U. S. Dollar especially compared to the euro. Um And the great uh the great Britain's pound. Um they are expecting um that uh they will see a lot of foreign exchange headwinds more than expected considering that the U. S. Dollar is so much stronger than international. And also another interesting thing for them is the fact that they did confirm that they pulled completely out of the chinese market at this time. Um And that's something that we haven't been talking. They decided to exit domestic china's business and they have about six million active listings there. So overall it is a mixed report but I think a little bit disappointing to see that the revenue didn't come in higher than they were expecting especially with all that talk of revenge travel and the more flexibility with the workforce at this time. Yeah. Michelle I think some of the major takeaways for me, you did such a great job here of breaking down the results is that people are starting to settle back into what life and their patterns were like before the pandemic over these past few years or so. That was a big takeaway. And then also that the company says it's well positioned for whatever lies ahead. I remember brian Chesky who I think generally is pretty well regarded as a startup founder. Now the ceo of a publicly traded company had to make that tough decision to lay off a good amount of staff at the star, the pandemic to try to set this company up for success. And it sounds like, even though that was a difficult decision to make, according to Chesky, that the company is in a pretty good spot, is that a takeaway for you? Definitely agree. And also just looking at the fact that they're seeing pre pandemic patterns of seasonality return, kind of saying that we're going back to the same travel trends of 20 in 2022 as we saw before. The pandemic is a good thing now, that doesn't mean that we're not seeing that additional boost that I think people were looking for, but the fact that we're not decreasing travel back to pandemic levels and that we are getting back to normal is a good thing. We do know there's still a lot of choppiness in the travel market right now. We were just talking about Heathrow even british airways cutting flights, they're still staffing shortages. But it does seem like this industry which has been in such turmoil for the last few years, is starting to normalize into a certain point and people are getting back to regular modes of travel compared to pre pandemic levels. Um well, Michelle Castelluccio with those results, Michelle, I know we'll be talking more about Airbnb here later on in this hour, we've got a whole host of other earnings to get to as well, so we'll leave it there for now. That stock is down about 8% after hours.