Oatly Shares Sour After Q4 Earnings Report, Despite Revenue Growth

Oatly Group AB OTLY shares are diving on Thursday.

The Malmö, Sweden-based company reported a fourth-quarter loss per share of $(0.50). That’s wider than the analyst consensus of $(0.15).

The company, known for making alternatives-to-diary products (i.e., oat milk) reported quarterly revenues of $204.12 million. This beat the street view of $191.34 million.

Quarterly revenues rose 4.6% compared to the prior year period, and constant currency revenue increased 2.5%.

Oatly experienced revenue growth in both the retail channel and food service channel. However, this was partially offset by a decline in other channels in the fourth quarter.

Sold volume for the fourth quarter increased 2% to 140 million liters compared to 137 million liters in the year-ago period. The produced finished goods volume for the fourth quarter of 2023 was 136 million liters compared to 149 million liters for the fourth quarter of 2022.

Gross margin in the fourth quarter was 23.4%, which is a 7.5 percentage points increase compared to the prior year period.

The fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA loss was $19.2 million. That’s an improvement of $41.2 million compared to the prior year’s period.

The improvement in adjusted EBITDA loss was primarily a result of higher gross profit as well as lower selling, general and administrative expenses.

As of Dec. 31, 2023, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $249.3 million and total outstanding debt of $443.8 million.

Outlook: Oatly forecasts revenue growth for the full year 2024 on a constant currency basis in the range of 5% to 10%. The company sees adjusted EBITDA loss in the range of $35 million-$60 million.

Capital expenditures for the full year 2024 are expected to be below $75 million.

Price Action: OTLY shares are trading lower by 15.1% to $1.14 on the last check Thursday.

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Photo by Tiia Monto on Wikimedia