SoFi Technologies Inc. shares were rallying over 12% in morning trading Monday after the digital financial services company exceeded expectations with its latest earnings and said that it expects to be profitable on a GAAP basis by the fourth quarter of this year.
The company saw its fourth-quarter losses narrow to $40 million, or 5 cents a share, from $111 million, or 15 cents a share, in the year-prior quarter. Analysts were expecting a 9-cent loss per share for the period.
On an adjusted basis, SoFi (SOFI) reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) of $70 million, ahead of the roughly $5 million in adjusted Ebitda it generated in the year-earlier quarter. The FactSet consensus was for $43 million.
The company saw fourth-quarter non-interest income rise to $144.6 million from $136.5 million, as it benefitted from higher personal-loan originations but also recorded lower student-loan and home-loan originations.
Personal-loan originations were up 50% from a year earlier, while student-loan originations were off 72% and home-loan originations were down 84% "as a result of macroeconomic headwinds and a continued transition of home-loan fulfillment partners," according to SoFi's release.
SoFi achieved $2.5 billion in personal-loan originations in the quarter. "This strong performance was aided by years of investment in technology to automate and accelerate the application-to-approval process for qualified borrowers and frequent testing of risk controls and underwriting models to maintain our high standard of credit quality," the company said in its release.
The company saw a 46% increase in total deposits for SoFi Bank during the period, and SoFi noted that the bank portion of the business brought in about $30 million in net income on a GAAP basis in what was the third full quarter of its operations.
The results "appear strong, especially considering interest rate and policy headwinds that SOFI continues to execute around," wrote Jefferies analyst John Hecht in a report.
Looking ahead, Chief Executive Anthony Noto said in a release that the company's growth and improvement in overall GAAP net income margin "position us very well in 2023" for "reaching GAAP net income profitability in the fourth quarter."
"The big beat on revenue and adjusted Ebitda are major positives of the 4Q results," Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev wrote in a note to clients. "Moreover, the promise to deliver positive GAAP net income in 4Q 2023 should be well-received, as GAAP losses have been a key deterrent in 2022 for FinTech investors."
The company's fiscal first-quarter outlook calls for $40 million to $45 million in adjusted Ebitda, whereas analysts were expecting $50 million. Management also anticipates $260 million to $280 million in adjusted Ebitda for the full year, while the FactSet consensus was for $246 million.
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