Adyen NV, the Dutch company known for handling payment processing for Facebook and other large online firms, on Wednesday beat expectations with a 27% rise in core earnings helped by growth in the Americas.
Earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to 403 million euros ($489 million) from 317 million in 2019 and topped the 386 million expected by analysts in a Refinitiv poll.
Net revenue rose 28% to 684.2 million euros, in line with expectations.
Adyen repeated financial targets of net revenue growth of "mid twenties and low thirties" in the medium term while adding it now expected its operating margin on EBITDA to improve in the long term to over 65%. That number was 59% for 2020.
In a letter to shareholders, the company said its business has proved "resilient" again in the second half of 2020.
"Despite the continued impact of COVID-19 on the world economy, we experienced substantial growth as online retail and digital goods volumes surged while the decrease in travel volumes persisted," the company said.
Use of point-of-sales devices on android phones, a newer part of its business, suffered due to store closures, but that was offset by customers moving sales online, Adyen said.
Adyen's shares are up 118% in the past 12 months, closing at 1,901.5 euros per share on Tuesday. In a spectacular IPO in 2018, Adyen's stock doubled from 240 euros on the first day of trading.
With a market capitalisation of 57 billion euros, it has become one of the Netherlands' largest companies.
($1 = 0.8244 euros)
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; editing by Shri Navaratnam and Jason Neely)
