Wayfair Q1 Beats Estimates

posted a narrower-than-expected loss for the first quarter on Monday. The Boston, Massachusetts-based company reported a quarterly loss of $27.1 million, or $0.33 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $35.2 million, or $0.85 per share. Excluding certain items, the company's loss narrowed to $0.23 per share from $0.57 per share. Its revenue climbed 52.3 percent to $424.4 million. However, analysts were estimating a loss of $0.24 per share on revenue of $389 million. The average estimate among 6 Estimize users was for a loss of $0.22 per share and revenue of $400.35 million. Its operating expenses increased 34 percent to $130 million. Gross profit widened to 24.2 percent of total net revenue, versus 23.4 percent of total net revenue. Active customers in direct retail business climbed 49.3 percent year-over-year to 3.6 million as of March 31, 2015. Direct retail revenue surged 63.4 percent to $369.4 million. Orders per customer rose to 1.64 from 1.62, while repeat customers placed 53.9 percent of total orders in the first quarter, versus 50.7 percent in the year-ago period. At the end of the quarter, the company had $359.6 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term and long-term investments. "We are off to a strong start this year and are particularly pleased with the revenue strength and accelerated growth in our Direct Retail business," noted Niraj Shah, co-founder, CEO and co-chairman of Wayfair. "We believe the growth rate this quarter underscores the size of the market opportunity, the rapidly changing, and favorable dynamics of how customers purchase home goods and Wayfair's unique position in this large and rapidly growing market segment." Wayfair shares jumped 7.81 percent to close at $30.78 on Friday.