Robinhood shares drop below IPO price in after-market trading on crypto slowdown
October 26, 2021
By John McCrank
(Reuters) -Robinhood Markets Inc shares fell below their initial public offering price in after-hours trading after the retail broker reported softer revenue than expected for the third quarter as trading levels for things like the cryptocurrency dogecoin eased.
Shares of Robinhood were down 9.02% at $36.00 following the release of the results, below the $38 they were priced at in the Menlo Park, California-based company’s July IPO.
Robinhood, owner of the trading app that was at the center of January’s trading mania for so-called meme stocks, said in August it expects retail investors to take a breather in the third quarter.
In its second set of results as a public company, the company posted total revenue of $365 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up 35% from a year earlier.
The consensus estimate of analysts had been for revenue of $431.38 million, according to IBES data.
“Looking back at Q2, we saw a huge interest in crypto, especially doge, leading to large numbers of new customers joining the platform and record revenues,” Robinhood Chief Executive Officer Vlad Tenev said on a call with analysts.
“In Q3, crypto activity came off record highs, leading to fewer new funded accounts and lower revenue.”
Last quarter, Robinhood said trading in dogecoin – a meme-inspired cryptocurrency – made up 62% of its cryptocurrency transaction volume.
Revenue from equities trading fell 27% to $50 million.
Transaction-based revenue from cryptocurrencies was up 860% at $51 million from a year earlier, but it was well off its record highs in the second quarter, Robinhood said.
A slowdown in retail trading, one of the standout trends in the pandemic era, comes as vaccine rollouts in the United States has helped the country ease restrictions and resume sports and other activities.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and John McCrank in New York; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Sonya Hepinstall)