Finance

Sonos soars after strong fiscal-year revenue forecast

Patrick Spence, CEO of Sonos. 

Devan Burris | CNBC

Shares of speaker maker Sonos rose as much as 23% in extended trading on Wednesday after the company reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and fiscal-year revenue guidance that beat expectations.

Here’s how the company did:

  • Earnings: 33 cents, excluding certain items, vs. 0 cents as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
  • Revenue: $339.8 million, vs. $298.8 million as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.

In the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended on October 3, Sonos’ revenue grew 16%, although the quarter was 14 weeks long, according to a statement. Leaving out the 14th week, revenue grew 7%.

For more than half of the 2020 fiscal year, people worked and attended school from home to reduce spread of the coronavirus. That meant people had more time to spend at home listening to music — a good thing for a company in the speaker business.

In the 2020 fiscal year Sonos increased the number of households by 20% year over year to 10.9 million, compared with 22% in the prior year. Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said in a statement that “existing customers add more products to their system – every new household that we gain starts that cycle anew.”

Sonos also launched several new products to help keep its portfolio fresh, including a high-end soundbar that works with TVs and a replacement to its most powerful speaker.

For the upcoming 2021 fiscal year, Sonos projects $1.44 billion to $1.5 billion in revenue, implying 11% to 15% growth, ahead of the $1.38 billion consensus among analysts polled by Refinitiv.

Excluding the after-hours move, Sonos shares are up 9% for the year, compared with 14% for the S&P 500 index.

Executives will discuss the results on a conference call with analysts that starts at 5 p.m. Eastern time.

—CNBC’s Todd Haselton contributed to this report.

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