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Moonpig shares fell sharply in London on Tuesday, after the online greetings-cards and gifts retailer released its first set of earnings since its blowout public listing earlier this year.
Moonpig
MOON,
slid nearly 10% to 383 pence. Shares surged 25% in early February on the first day of trading and have climbed as high as 499 pence at its best over the past few months.
Investors are concerned about a potential revenue slowdown with consumers back in the shops, said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, in a note to clients.
‘’The pandemic sent Moonpig flying in terms of sales, with revenue more than doubling in the twelve months to the end of April. But with plans to spend big on marketing to hang onto newly acquired customers as revenue growth is forecast to slow, shares have fallen by 6% in early trading,” she said.
Jefferies analyst Andrew Wade kept his buy rating on Moonpig, calling results a “solid maiden set of numbers,” and noting a brighter start to the new fiscal year.
The biggest heavyweight faller in London was Reckitt Benckiser
RKT,
which dropped close to 9% after earnings of the consumer goods group were hit by a costly exit from its Infant Formula and Child Nutrition business in China. Tough comparables were also an issue, as demand for cleaning products has eased, while rising raw material costs were also an issue.
The FTSE 100 index fell 0.3% to 6,997.18. Other fallers included insurer Legal & General Group
LGEN,
and Rio Tinto
RIO,
Mining stocks were also dragging the index south, as investors fretted over a meltdown in China and Hong Kong equities amid a continuing regulatory crackdown for tech and recently education shares.
The biggest gainer in the FTSE 100 was specialty chemicals company Croda International
CRDA,
which rose 7%. Croda said Tuesday that it expects its adjusted pretax profit for 2021 to be significantly ahead of current expectations, after reporting market-beating earnings for the first half. The specialty chemical company also declared an interim dividend.
