A banner for the online image board Pinterest Inc. hangs from the New York Stock Exchange on the morning that Pinterest makes its initial public offering on April 18, 2019.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Pinterest shares sank as much as 12% after the company reported revenue that missed analyst expectations and issued a light forecast for the first quarter.
Here’s how the company did.
- Revenue: $877 million vs. $886.3 million expected, according to Refinitiv.
- Earnings: 29 cents per share vs. 27 cents expected, according to Refinitiv.
Pinterest said it expects sales in the first quarter to increase in the “low single digits” from a year earlier. Analysts were expecting growth of 6.9% to $614.8 million.
The company said that its chief financial officer and head of business operations Todd Morgenfeld will leave the company on July 1, 2023.
Sales in Pinterest’s fourth quarter grew 4% year over year to $877 million while overall sales for 2022 jumped 9% year-over-year to $2.8 billion.
Pinterest recorded net income of $17 million in the fourth quarter, but logged a net loss of $96 million for 2022.
The company said that its global monthly active users increased by 4% year-over-year to 450 million. Its average revenue per user, or ARPU, for the U.S. and Canada region rose 6% in the fourth quarter to $7.60 from a year ago.
“While the industry as a whole is facing headwinds, we are adapting quickly to a changing macro environment and are committed to creating a more positive online experience for our users and advertisers,” Pinterest CEO Bill Ready said in a statement.
The company also said that its chief marketing and communications officer Andréa Mallard and its chief revenue officer Bill Watkins will now report directly to Ready.
Pinterest’s fourth-quarter earnings come after many ad-supported companies reported tepid results.
Meta said last week that its fourth-quarter sales dropped 4% year-over-year to $32.17 billion while Alphabet said its Google advertising unit logged $59.04 billion in fourth quarter sales, a 3.6% drop from the same quarter last year. Additionally, revenue in Alphabet’s YouTube unit sank 8% year-over-year to $7.96 billion in the fourth quarter.
Snap said its sales in the fourth quarter was slightly up year-over-year to $1.30 billion, which missed analyst expectations of $1.31 billion.
Amazon’s digital advertising unit represented a bright spot during the fourth quarter, with sales in that unit jumping 19% year-over-year to $11.6 billion.
Pinterest reportedly laid off around 150 employees last week, joining the growing list of technology companies like Meta, Alphabet and Salesforce that have fired workers in recent months.
In August, Elliott Management confirmed that it was Pinterest’s top investor and voiced support for the company’s new CEO Bill Ready, who formerly led Google’s commerce business.
Ready joined Pinterest in June 2022, replacing the longtime CEO Ben Silbermann, who co-founded the company in 2010.
