Earnings Results: Roblox shows decline in important sales metric, shares head toward lowest prices yet

United States

Roblox Corp. shares dropped toward their lowest prices on record Tuesday as the social-gaming platform reported a decline in an important sales metric.

Roblox  RBLX, -5.77%  shares initially fell 10% in after-hours trading, but recovered somewhat to end the session down 4%, following a 5.8% decline in the regular session to close at $ 23.19; shares have never traded for less than $ 21.65 in a regular session but briefly dipped below that mark in extended trading. The stock finished 67% off the $ 69.50 it closed at on its first day of trading a little more than a year ago.

The company reported a first-quarter loss of $ 160.2 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with a loss of $ 134.2 million, or 46 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Roblox finished the quarter with about 588.5 million shares outstanding, compared with the year-ago quarter’s 291.1 million outstanding shares.

Revenue rose to $ 537.1 million from $ 387 million in the year-ago quarter, while bookings declined to $ 631.2 million from $ 652.3 million in the year-ago period.

Analysts, on average, had forecast a loss of 22 cents a share on bookings of $ 655.7 million. FactSet’s Wall Street consensus for revenue compares against Roblox’s reported bookings.

The company defines bookings as “revenue plus the change in deferred revenue during the period and other non-cash adjustments.” The importance of bookings comes into play as the company sells virtual currency on its site that may be considered deferred revenue.

Read: The Roblox non-IPO: 5 things to know about the tween-centric gaming platform’s direct listing

Average daily active users, or DAUs, were 54.1 million, up 28% from the same year-ago period. For April, Roblox said DAUs rose 23% to 53.1 million from a year ago.

“We remained focused on delivering our innovation roadmap to unlock the full potential of the Roblox platform and drive long-term returns for investors,” Roblox Chief Executive David Baszucki said in a statement. “Over the past two quarters, we have launched a number of notable innovations including spatial voice and layered clothing that will continue driving user growth, engagement and monetization.”

Back in February, Roblox stock logged its worst one-day performance since it went public, dropping more than a quarter of its value in one trading session, following lighter-than-expected results as once-stuck-inside kids were finding other ways to spend their time.