Restaurant-technology vendor Toast priced its IPO on Tuesday at $40 a share, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the announcement isn’t yet public. The offering was above the expected range and values the company at about $20 billion.
Toast had expected to sell shares at $34 to $36 a piece, after raising the range from $30 to $33. The company will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol “TOST.”
Toast’s IPO comes after a roller-coaster stretch in the pandemic during which revenue initially sank by 80% as restaurants closed and cities across the country shut down. The company slashed half of its workforce in mid-2020 and took desperate measures to stay afloat.
But like other hospitality industry-focused tech companies such as Airbnb and TripActions, the rebound was much swifter than expected. Restaurants stayed open and shifted their business to takeout, delivery and mobile ordering, playing right into Toast’s sweet spot.
Toast initially gave a one-month credit of software fees to its customers and provided free access to its technology that enabled takeout, online ordering and gift card purchases.
By the third quarter of 2020, revenue was increasing again from the prior year. By November the company was experiencing such an upswing that it orchestrated a secondary share sale so that current and former employees could sell up to 25% of their vested shares at a price that valued Toast at $8 billion.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Toast was thriving by selling technology to restaurants that helped them combine their payment systems with things like inventory management and multilocation controls for eateries with more than one site. Investors valued the company at $5 billion in February 2020.
Toast now says it’s serving more than 48,000 restaurant locations as of the end of June, up from 27,000 in 2019. Annual recurring revenue surged 118% in the second quarter from a year earlier to $494 million. The bulk of Toast’s revenue comes from what the company calls financial technology solutions, consisting primarily of fees paid by customers for payment transactions. Less than 10% comes from subscriptions.
Amazon’s online advertising business brought in $14.3 billion in the third quarter, up 19% year over year, in line with analysts’ estimates of $14.3 billion.
The Seattle tech giant revealed the financial results of its growing advertising unit as part of its latest earnings report Thursday. Amazon’s overall third-quarter sales were $158.9 billion, ahead of analysts’ estimates of $157.2 billion.
Amazon’s online advertising business is still a fraction of the company’s overall business, but its growth over the years has made it a major competitor to Alphabet and Meta, which lead the digital advertising market. Alphabet’s Google currently represents 27.7% of the worldwide digital advertising market, followed by Meta at 22.8% and Amazon with 8.8%, according to data provided to CNBC by Emarketer.
Meta’s third-quarter advertising revenue came in at $39.9 billion, which was up 19% compared with the year prior. That was slightly ahead of analysts’ expectations of $39.49 billion, according to StreetAccount. Ads accounted for 98.3% of Meta’s overall third-quarter revenue.
Alphabet generated $65.85 billion in third-quarter ad revenue, the company reported Tuesday. That was up 10% from $59.65 billion the year prior. Additionally, advertising sales for the company’s YouTube unit rose 12% year over year to $8.92 billion.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger holds an artificial intelligence processor as he speaks during the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 4, 2024.
Annabelle Chih | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Intel shares rose 9% in extended trading on Thursday after the chipmaker reported better-than-expected revenue and issued quarterly guidance that topped estimates.
Here’s how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus:
Earnings per share: Loss of 46 cents adjusted
Revenue: $13.28 billion vs. $13.02 billion expected
Intel’s revenue declined 6% year over year in the quarter, which ended on Sept. 28, according to a statement. The company registered a net loss of $16.99 billion, or $3.88 per share, compared with net earnings of $310 million, or 7 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.
As part of its cost reduction plan, Intel recognized $2.8 billion in restructuring charges during the quarter. There were also $15.9 billion in impairment charges.
Intel has been mired in an extended slump due to market share losses in its core businesses and an inability to crack artificial intelligence. CEO Pat Gelsinger revealed plans during the quarter to turn the company’s foundry business into an independent subsidiary, a move that would enable outside funding options.
CNBC reported that Intel had engaged advisors to defend itself against activist investors. In late September, news surfaced that Qualcomm reached out to Intel about a possible takeover.
The Client Computing Group that sells PC chips recorded $7.33 billion in revenue, down about 7% from a year earlier and below the $7.39 billion consensus among analysts surveyed by StreetAccount.
Revenue from the Data Center and AI segment came to $3.35 billion, which was up about 9% and more than the $3.17 billion consensus from StreetAccount.
Intel called for fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of 12 cents per share and revenue between $13.3 billion and $14.3 billion. Analysts had expected 8 cents in adjusted earnings per share and $13.66 billion in revenue.
During the quarter, Intel announced the launch of Xeon 6 server processors and Gaudi artificial intelligence accelerators.
As of Thursday’s close, Intel shares were down about 57% in 2024, while the S&P 500 index had gained 20%.
Executives will discuss the results with analysts on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at a company event on artificial intelligence technologies in Jakarta, Indonesia, on April 30, 2024.
Dimas Ardian | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Microsoft‘s better-than-expected earnings report wasn’t enough to prevent the stock’s steepest sell-off in two years, as investors instead focused on the company’s forecast for the current period.
Microsoft shares fell 6% on Thursday and headed for their worst day since Oct. 26, 2022, when they dropped 7.7%. That was a month before the public release of ChatGPT from Microsoft-backed OpenAI, a launch that set the stage for a boom in artificial intelligence investments.
For the period ending in December, Microsoft called for revenue in the range of $68.1 billion to $69.1 billion, implying 10.6% growth at the middle of the range. Analysts surveyed by LSEG were looking for $69.83 billion in revenue.
Revenue in Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure business, Azure, increased 33%. CFO Amy Hood said on a call with analysts that growth, in constant currency, will come in at 31% to 32% in the fiscal second quarter.
On Tuesday, Google reported 35% annual growth in its rival cloud business to $11.35 billion. Amazon, which leads the cloud infrastructure market, is scheduled to report results after the close on Thursday.
“We view Q1 results as solid across the core Azure and Office growth businesses, though tempered by a softer Q2 outlook,” analysts at BofA Global Research wrote in a report on Thursday. They still recommend buying the stock.
Fiscal first-quarter revenue increased 16% from a year earlier to $65.59 billion, exceeding the average analyst estimate of $64.51 billion, according to LSEG. Earnings per share of $3.30 topped the $3.10 average estimate.
Net income rose 11% to $24.67 billion from $22.29 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Outside suppliers are late in delivering data center infrastructure to Microsoft, meaning the company won’t be able to meet demand in the fiscal second quarter.
“I feel pretty good that going into the second half of even this fiscal year, that some of that supply-demand will match up,” CEO Satya Nadella said on the earnings call.
Microsoft’s AI investments continue to be a major focus for investors, as the company builds out its infrastructure and ramps up chip spending to handle heftier workloads. Microsoft has invested close to $14 billion in OpenAI, which was valued at $157 billion in a financing round earlier this month.
Hood said on the call she expects the company to take a $1.5 billion hit to income in the current period, mainly because of an expected loss from its investment in the AI startup.
Meanwhile, spending on property and equipment grew 50% year over year to $14.92 billion. The consensus among analysts polled by Capital IQ was $14.58 billion.
As of Thursday’s close, Microsoft shares were up a little over 8% for the year, while the Nasdaq has risen 21% during the same period.