Fintech stock Adyen crashed 40% on Thursday: here’s why

Adyen NV (AMS: ADYEN) was hit quite hard this morning after recording lacklustre performance for the first six months of 2023.

Adyen CFO still sounded positive

The payments company ended the first half with €777 million in revenue ($844.5 million) – up 21% on a year-over-year basis but down some €38 million versus consensus.

Its profit also remained about flat in the six-month period at €282.2 million. Ethan Tandowsky – the Finance Chief of Adyen said today on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe”:

Adyen stock is now down a whopping 45% versus its year-to-date high.

Adyen blames higher wages for weakness

The Dutch company saw its EBITDA slip 10% in H1 to €320 million versus €379 million expected. Still, CFO Tandowsky added:

Adyen attributed much of the weakness in its adjusted profit to higher wages and salaries. The sell-off on Thursday trimmed over €13 billion off the market value of this financial technology firm.

Wall Street currently rates Adyen stock at “overweight”.

Adyen reiterates its long-term guidance

On the plus side, Adyen continues to see 25% to 32% (approx.) growth in its revenue, as per its letter to the shareholders.

The Amsterdam-listed business is convinced that its EBITDA margin will climb to 65% in the long-term versus 43% in the first half. According to CFO Tandowsky:

Note that Adyen added 551 full-time jobs in H1. The fintech stock is down on Thursday also because the company’s EBITDA margin was down 16% year-on-year in the first half.