Yahoo! Finance
Dutch payments processor Adyen NV on Wednesday reported a 4.1% rise in its second-half core earnings, missing analysts’ expectations and knocking its shares as its margins were hit by higher staffing and investment costs.
Adyen shares were down 15% to 1,299 euros at 0813 GMT, erasing most of their strong January rally.
Separately, the company promoted its long-time chief financial officer (CFO) to a co-chief executive role.
“The world economy was volatile in H2 2022, with high inflation and geopolitical instability creating a challenging period for global commerce,” the company that helps processes payments for Facebook, Uber and Netflix said in a statement.
“Adyen closely monitors these developments and is not immune to their effects.”
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the six months ended on Dec. 31 rose to 372 million euros ($399 million) from 357.3 million a year earlier.
That was well below the 464 million expected by analysts, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
Revenue rose 30% to 721 million euros, in line with the company’s medium term target of growth of at least mid-20% range, and the company said it saw no reason to change the target.
Jefferies analysts said that although the numbers missed expectations, they were “better than feared” in terms of processing volumes.
Adyen’s EBITDA margin fell to 52% from 64%, which it said was due in part to “employee benefits exceeding net revenue growth”.
Margins were also affected by higher spending to hire employees and for capital spending on data centres.