Investing.com — Shares of Boku (NASDAQ:BOKU) rose 1.8% as the company issued a strong FY24 trading update, beating consensus estimates despite currency fluctuations.
The mobile payments company reported 20% growth in fixed gross payment (TPV) volume, beating Visible Alpha’s consensus by 3%. Revenue beat expectations by a 13% beat, posting a 19% increase in constant currency terms.
Jefferies commented on the results, saying, “Although a touch below our estimates (for FX), we see the results putting Boku on track to meet our 2025 expectations. The stock should be on top of this print.”
Boku’s performance was driven by an increase in monthly active users (MAUs), which increased by 33% to 88 million, driven by new users in Account-to-Account (A2A) and digital wallets. Adjusted EBITDA forecasts improved significantly by 14%, to nearly $17 million, reflecting a strong margin of 33%. Operating expenses grew modestly by 11%, allowing the company to maintain a strong profit margin.
The company ended 2024 on a strong note, continuing the momentum from the first half of the year. Growth was mainly driven by Local Payment Methods (LPM), with significant user growth in digital wallets and A2A services.
Despite facing an exchange rate impact of 400 basis points, mainly due to the weakening of the Japanese yen and the strengthening of the US dollar, Boku was able to secure significant LPM contracts, including Amazon (NASDAQ: ) in Japan and Meta (NASDAQ: ) in Nigeria. This development is expected to improve the capabilities of the Boku platform and drive growth.
In the second half of the year, Boku’s revenue grew 19% on a constant basis, reaching more than $52 million and beating consensus by 13%. This increase was driven by almost 64% growth in LPM, while Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) saw an increase of approximately 8%.
The company’s TPV for the year grew 23% in fixed income to nearly $12.4 billion, while total revenue increased 24% to more than $99 million. Adjusted EBITDA stood at approximately $31.5 million, or 31.7% margin, an improvement from the prior year.
Core reserves improved, ending the year at $80 million, up from $75 million at the end of June, including $9 million used for share buybacks in the second half of the year. For the full year, share buybacks totaled $10.7 million, or 4.7 million shares.
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