What to Look For in Etsy Earnings

By Paul Ausick Updated Apr 28, 9:59AM EDT · Published May 18, 1:00PM EDT

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Etsy Inc. (NASDAQ: ETSY) came public in late April of this year and will issue its first earnings statement as a publicly traded company after markets close on Tuesday. There are no estimates on earnings or revenues because the company’s stock just has not been traded long enough.

That does not mean that we have nothing to say. A spate of potential class action lawsuits are being mentioned following reports that as much as 5% of the company’s goods for sale may violate trademark laws. The allegations surfaced last week and a proposed class action lawsuit was filed Wednesday against the company, its chief executive and its chief financial officer.

This is similar to the issue that hit Alibaba in China earlier this year, and it is still causing problems for the Chinese behemoth. The Chinese government has said that Alibaba did not take enough precautions to prevent the sale of counterfeit goods on the website. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly looking into the matter because Alibaba did not reveal that it had met with Chinese government officials prior to its IPO. The allegations against Etsy are currently of the former kind and there is nothing to indicate that the company withheld information from investors.

Etsy priced its IPO at $16, and shares traded as high as $35.74 on its first day, before settling at $30.00. On Friday the stock closed at $20.05. We noted at the time of the IPO that the underwriters did not do Etsy any favors, leaving more than $200 million on the table for favored clients to share.

Since the IPO, a few analysts have issued initial ratings and price targets on the stock. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley both put a price target of $20 on the shares, along with the equivalent of a neutral rating. Wedbush downgraded its rating from Neutral to Underperform and put a price target of $14 on the stock. Brean Capital is more upbeat, rating the shares as a Buy and boosting the firm’s price target from $19 to $23 a share.

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More than anything, though, the impending earnings report plants a stake in the ground for Etsy and gives analysts and investors a starting point for further decision-making. The company also needs to say something to rebuild confidence that it is not selling fake brand goods. In truth, unless the company reveals blockbusting numbers, it is difficult to think of anything that could overcome the skepticism around the stock right now.

Shares traded at $20.19 in the noon hour on Monday, up about 0.6% in a post-IPO range of $19.15 to $35.74.

About the Author Paul Ausick →

Paul Ausick has been writing for a673b.bigscoots-temp.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.

He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.