Jakub Porzycki | Null Photo | Getty Images
instacartThe company’s strong performance allayed concerns about increased competitive pressure in the grocery delivery market, sending its stock price up more than 14%.
CEO Chris Rogers, who took over last year, said on an earnings call with analysts that concerns were “overblown” and that the company was monitoring the threat “very closely.”
“There’s definitely a market for us here and we feel good about our differentiation,” he said.
Instacart faces an increasingly competitive market driven by retailer demands. Amazon food platforms such as Uber Eating or door dash Aggressively expand grocery delivery. At the same time, the company is investing in new technology and artificial intelligence tools to drive more customers and businesses to its platform.
Wall Street analysts viewed Instacart’s results as a wave of confidence for those concerned about the company’s moat. Bernstein analysts said the report was a “robust refutation” of competitive pressures and the threat of AI.
“Clean beat-and-raises are rare in this Internet revenue cycle, and CART stands out from that perspective,” Barclays analysts said.
The San Francisco-based company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter sales and said gross transaction value (GTV) increased 14%, marking its strongest quarterly growth in three years.
The total number of orders was 89.5 million, exceeding the Street account estimate of 87.8 million.
Instacart also released an optimistic forecast, pegging GTV in the range of $10.13 billion to $10.28 billion, compared to StreetAccount’s estimate of $9.97 billion.
The company expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to be between $280 million and $290 million, compared with expectations of $277 million.
