Instacart, in its first financial report since its IPO, says that its Q3 gross transaction value (GTV) was up six percent over the same period a year ago, to $7.5 billion, and orders to 66.2 million, up four percent year-over-year.
The Information described the results as "relatively sluggish," but noted that they "beat Wall Street expectations."
In its report, Instacart also said, "We also delivered a higher-quality mix of GTV growth, with orders driving the majority of our GTV increase and average order value (AOV) growth tempering as we lapped the onset of higher inflation last year. Our continued focus on driving fulfillment efficiencies and strong advertising performance in the quarter helped deliver total revenue and GAAP gross profit year-over-year growth of 14% and 16%, respectively. This, combined with ongoing financial discipline, drove solid bottom line results."
The Information observed that Instacart said it "would continue growing more slowly than its gig-economy peers like DoorDash, which grew marketplace volume by 24% last quarter. Instacart said it expected its volume growth 'to remain in the 5-6% range' next quarter.
"The company said it would 'opportunistically' buy back up to $500 million shares, signaling that it thinks its stock price is low. The company said it had $2.2 billion in cash, and expects that cash pile to grow. In 2023, it said it would pull in more than three times as much adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization than it did in 2022."
