Sonos Inc. ( NASDAQ: SONO ) shares rose in after hours trading on Wednesday after exceeding Q4 expectations despite a difficult macro backdrop.
For its fiscal fourth quarter, the speaker manufacturer posted a $0.32 loss alongside $316.3M in revenue. Analysts had expected a $0.33 loss and 18.1% drop in revenue from the prior year to $294.61M. The beat on top and bottom lines came despite a whopping 720 basis point erosion in gross margin.
“The macroeconomic backdrop became significantly more challenging in Fiscal 2022 and I am proud of our team's tremendous efforts to deliver our 17th consecutive year of revenue growth,” CEO Patrick Spence commented. “We were pleased to see trends stabilize in Q4, and head into the holidays with a good early response to our latest product, Sub Mini, and our healthiest in-stock inventory position in three years.”
He added that the company will work towards controlling costs and work toward restoring “double-digit” revenue growth in the long-term.
However, fiscal 2023 will not be that point of return, according to management. The projection of revenue in the range of $1.7B to $1.8B would reflect a 3% decline to a 3% gain from fiscal 2022. Those levels nonetheless remain above the reined in analyst consensus of $1.69B.
Gross margin in the range of 45.0% to 46.0% would essentially be flat from 2022. Meanwhile, an adjusted EBITDA forecast in the range of $145M to $180M represents a decline of 36% to 21% from fiscal 2022. The estimate also falls short of the analyst consensus of $197.04M.
Elsewhere, the company elevated its interim CFO Eddie Lazarus to a full-time CFO and authorized an up to $100M buyback program.
Shares of the California-based audio company rose 2.73% in Wednesday’s extended session.
Read more on the details of the quarter .
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Sonos stock rises after Q4 earnings beat, upbeat holiday sales forecast