JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Wix.com, which helps small businesses build and operate websites, reported on Thursday a wider third-quarter loss but said the uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic was diminishing.
“We saw improvements in the business environment. Our users are still navigating a great deal of uncertainty, but we believe the impacts have lessened,” said CEO Avishai Abrahami.
The Israeli company reported a less-than-expected quarterly net loss excluding one-time items of 21 cents per share, compared with a loss 14 cents a year earlier. Revenue grew 26% to $321 million.
Analysts had forecast Wix would lose 42 cents a share ex-items on revenue of $315 million, according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv.
“Outperformance this quarter was driven by better than expected new user additions, conversion of new users to subscriptions and average collections per subscription,” said CFO Lior Shemesh.
The company said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of $324-$333 million.
It also raised its full-year revenue guidance to $1.265- $1.274 billion from a previous guidance of $1.255-$1.270 billion but trimmed its free cash flow estimate to $45-$50 million from $60-$65 million due to the strong shekel versus the dollar that has “become a more significant headwind to our operating expenses.”
(Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Ari Rabinovitch)
