-- Reddit (RDDT) shares jumped early Friday as the social media platform provided an upbeat revenue outlook at the midpoint for the second quarter on the back of stronger-than-expected results in the previous three-month period.
The company anticipates revenue to come in between $715 million and $725 million for the current quarter, it said late Thursday. The guidance range's midpoint of $720 million is ahead of the current consensus on FactSet of $717 million. The stock climbed 14% in the most recent premarket activity.
"Our (second-quarter) revenue guide considers the strong growth and momentum in the business as we exited (the first quarter)," Chief Financial Officer Drew Vollero said during an earnings call, according to a FactSet transcript. The outlook also "takes into account the lapping of a particularly strong growth period" in the prior-year quarter, according to Vollero.
For the quarter ended March 31, Reddit's net income soared to $1.01 per share from $0.13 the year before, topping the Street's view for $0.57. Revenue surged 69% to $663.4 million, exceeding the average analyst estimate of $607.7 million.
"Revenue growth in (the first quarter) was driven by a combination of both impressions and pricing growth, reflecting the scale of our platform and our investments in the ad stack," Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Wong said on the call. "We saw strength across most of our top verticals, particularly retail, (consumer packaged goods), tech and media and entertainment, while the number of active advertisers on the platform grew more than 75% year-over-year."
Ad revenue climbed 74% to $625 million amid strong advertising demand across the funnel, Vollero said. Revenue jumped 67% and 76% in the US and international segments, respectively.
The company posted global daily active unique users of 126.8 million in the March quarter, up from 108.1 million a year ago. The Street's forecast was for 125.9 million. Daily active unique users inclined 7% to 53.5 million in the US, while international users rose 26% to 73.3 million.
Worldwide average revenue per unique user climbed 44% to $5.23.
"We're focused on growing our daily user base in the US to a size closer to that of the largest platforms," Chief Executive Steve Huffman told analysts on the call. "Our goal is to reach 100 million daily US users, and we're actively executing a strategy to get us there."