Wayfair Stock Is Dropping as Size of Loss Surprises the Street

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editorial-seo-id|wayfair-stock-loss-sales-results-expenses-51582922264 first_publish_headline Wayfair Stock Is Dropping as Size of Loss Surprises the Street first_publish_headline|Wayfair Stock Is Dropping as Size of Loss Surprises the Street flow NWREGULAR flow|NWREGULAR codetype FLOW value NWREGULAR source MANUAL status modified name Wires code NWREGULAR flow Barrons.com flow|Barrons.com codetype FLOW value Barrons.com source MANUAL status modified name Barrons.com code online name Online title Product code Barrons.com flow Barrons Blogs flow|Barrons Blogs codetype FLOW value Barrons Blogs title Product source MANUAL status modified name Barrons Blogs code Barrons_Blogs headline Wayfair Stock Is Dropping as Size of Loss Surprises the Street headline|Wayfair Stock Is Dropping as Size of Loss Surprises the Street in i64 in|i64 name Retail/Wholesale why lineage source FACTIVA fcode i64 codetype in code i64 in i648 in|i648 name Household Goods/Hardware Stores why lineage source FACTIVA 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BARCONSUMER canbedisplaysubject true name Consumer title Consumer status modified code BARCONSUMER subject BAREARNREP subject|BAREARNREP ruleid BAREARNREP codetype SUBJECT value BAREARNREP canbedisplaybrand true name Earnings Report title Earnings Report status modified code BAREARNREP wordcount 327 wordcount|327 id facebook id|facebook news_tab_url https://www.barrons.com/articles/wayfair-stock-loss-sales-results-expenses-51582922264 Photograph by Gabby Jones/Bloomberg Wayfair Stock Is Dropping as Size of Loss Surprises the Street Wayfair Stock Is Dropping as Size of Loss Surprises the Street Wayfair Stock Is Dropping as Size of Loss Surprises Wall Street

Expenses grew faster than sales in the latest quarter. The online furniture retailer dislcosed its results on Friday.

Wayfair Stock Is Dropping as Size of Loss Surprises the Street

Expenses grew faster than sales in the latest quarter. The online furniture retailer dislcosed its results on Friday.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/wayfair-stock-earnings-revenue-furniture-tariffs-51572539831 https://www.barrons.com/articles/wayfairs-costs-keep-rising-as-revenue-meets-expectations-51564674797 https://investor.wayfair.com/news/news-details/2020/Wayfair-Announces-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2019-Results/default.aspx mailto:ben.walsh@barrons.com Wayfair Stock Is Dropping as Size of Loss Surprises the Street By Ben Walsh Photograph by Gabby Jones/Bloomberg The online retailer said this month it was cutting 3% of its staff.

Wayfair, the fast-growing online furniture retailer, has been trying to do something a little different: convince investors that it can, eventually, make a profit.

So far, it’s not going very well.

Wayfair stock (ticker: W) is down 14.3% after the company reported a larger fourth-quarter loss than it did a year ago. The company’s shares are down 62% in the past 12 months, compared to 6% for the S&P 500.

The company said Friday it brought in $2.53 billion in sales and lost $3.54 per share. Analysts expected $2.53 billion in sales and a loss of $2.64 per share, according to Factset.

Perhaps most worrying for investors, sales growth in the quarter was far outpaced by expense growth, with the former up 26% year over year, but the later rising 44%.

Earlier in February, the company said it was cutting 500 jobs, about 3% of its workforce. Explaining the cuts, co-founder and Chief Executive Niraj Shah wrote an email to staff in which he said, “ultimately every company needs to be self-financing,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

On a conference call with analysts, Shah said that the company would work to slow growth in costs, particularly for advertising. But the company said that even with that cost discipline, it doesn’t expect to begin delivering reliable profits until next year.

Write to Ben Walsh at ben.walsh@barrons.com

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.