SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian financial tech firm StoneCo on Wednesday posted a better-than-expected first-quarter profit, while also predicting further revenue growth for the second quarter.
The firm reported adjusted net profit of 236.6 million reais, more than five times the figure reported a year ago and above analysts’ estimate polled by Refinitiv of 215.8 million reais.
Revenue grew 31% in the period to 2.71 billion reais, also above the expected 2.67 billion reais, boosted by solid growth in the firm’s financial services platform.
Growth in the financial services segment “was mostly a result of our performance in the micro, small and medium business segment, with strong year over year total payment volume and client base growth, in addition to higher take rates and revenue from banking solution and PIX,” Stone said in a statement.
The company also forecast revenue of 2.875 billion reais for the second-quarter, which would represent a growth of 24.8% over the previous year.
During the January-March quarter, the company reached 2.8 million active payment services clients, representing a net addition of 234,000 active clients.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) meanwhile came in at 1.251 billion reais, a 55.7% increase year over year, but slightly below the expected 1.3 billion reais.
(Reporting by Alberto Alerigi Jr. and Peter Frontini; Editing by Anthony Esposito)
