Retail investment platform Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ:HOOD)’s shares were on the rise this Wednesday following a bullish post-market earnings call.
Once again, given the trading platform’s less-sophisticated user base, Robinhood heavily relied on volume over value.
Robinhood’s average revenue per user (ARPU) for the year was just $81, though this was a 23% year-on-year increase.
To put this into context, prominent retail investment platform AJ Bell in the UK has an ARPU of £443 ($556) per its latest full-year results (£218.2 million in revenues on 491,402 retail customers).
Evidently, volumes have done the trick for Robinhood, with total 2023 revenues of $1.9 billion marking a new record.
Robinhood’s cryptocurrency platform showed strength. Crypto assets under custody (AUC) increased 75% to $14.7 billion, slightly more than 14% of Robinhood’s total AUC of $102.6 billion at the end of the period.
Transaction-based crypto revenues increased 10% to $43 million, representing more than a fifth of the $200 million in transaction-based revenues across crypto, equities and options.
Options were a sore spot, declining 2% to $121 million.
Firm-wide net income increased year-over-year to $30 million, representing earnings per share (EPS) of $0.03, compared with a net loss of $166 million, or EPS of -$0.19, in the fourth quarter of 2022.
On the downside, monthly Active Users (MAU) decreased 4% year-over-year to 10.9 million.
“We delivered significant profitable growth in 2023,” said Jason Warnick, chief financial officer, “We drove record full-year revenues and substantially higher margins, and in Q4 we had positive GAAP net income.
“In 2024, we aim to continue delivering profitable growth as we work to maximize earnings per share over time to drive long-term shareholder value.”
Robinhood shares were trading 15% higher at $13.65 in pre-market exchanges.