Airtasker Ltd (ASX: ART) shares are up 4.02% to $1.16 after the company upgraded its FY21 guidance.
Airtasker is an Australian marketplace for local services and trades, looking to bring its platform to new international markets.
The website connects people and businesses who need work done with people and businesses who want to work. You can check out the site here.
ART share price
Second guidance beat
The company achieved full-year FY21 gross marketplace volume (GMV) – the total payments processed through the Airtasker platform, of $153.1 million.
This beats the prospectus forecast of $143.7 million by $9.4 million. Additionally, it exceeds the upgraded third-quarter GMV guidance of $148-152 million.
GMV for the fourth quarter of FY21 was $39.4 million representing a 39.1% increase compared to the same period in the prior year. However, this was a small decrease on the third quarter GMV of $41.2 million.
Airtasker also noted the above GMV outperformance was achieved while maintaining costs below full-year prospectus forecasts.
No update was provided on revenue. The company previously updated its revenue guidance in the third quarter update. FY21 revenue is forecasted to be in the range of $25.5-$26.0 million.
Slow start to FY22
Given current lockdowns in Sydney and sporadic stay at home orders in other states, Airtasker expects a softer start to the first quarter of FY22.
At this stage, current restrictions will have no impact on full-year FY22 targets, primarily due to “elevated marketplace performance going into lockdowns and historically sharp marketplace recovery“.
The company will provide its full-year results next month during August.
Share price fails to fire
Since its IPO in March this year, Airtasker has upgraded prospectus guidance twice.
More impressively, despite lockdown uncertainty across Australia, the business has retained its FY22 guidance.
Notwithstanding the positive news flow out of Airtasker, the share price has failed to fire from an initial high of $1.75 in the first few days of trading.
My take
Any company that upgrades guidance twice during a financial year is outstanding, let alone one that upgrades two in the three months post IPO.
I still have concerns over the stickiness of the Airtasker platform in the longer term and international expansion risk. Therefore I’ll be watching this one from the sidelines.
I have however added Airtasker to my watchlist after its second upgrade and may need to have a closer look if it continues to outperform.
