03:50 PM EDT, 08/01/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Roblox ( RBLX ) posted "very strong" second-quarter financial results, though the announcement of Chief Financial Officer Michael Guthrie's departure and unreasonably high bookings expectations among certain investors weighed on the company's stock, Wedbush Securities said Thursday.

The video game platform's net loss narrowed to $0.32 a share for the quarter through June 30 from $0.46 a year earlier. The Capital IQ-polled consensus was for a $0.38 loss. Bookings, a non-GAAP measure defined as revenue plus the change in deferred revenue and other adjustments, jumped 22% to $955.2 million, topping Wall Street's $901.8 million view. Wedbush was looking for $885 million.

Revenue increased 31% to $893.5 million, while average daily active users grew 21% to 79.5 million. The company saw "strong" growth across all its core metrics, Chief Executive David Baszucki said in a Thursday statement.

Roblox ( RBLX ) posted "a very strong" second quarter, getting back to 20% plus growth across several important metrics, including bookings, Wedbush analysts, including Nick McKay, said in a note to clients. "If one assumes that bookings for the first two weeks of April were flat year-over-year, the implied growth rate for the remainder of the quarter would be just above 25% in order to get to the level that Roblox ( RBLX ) achieved."

The company's shares were down 5.5% in Thursday late-afternoon trade. Wedbush said one of the reasons behind the decline was the announcement of Guthrie's departure.

Guthrie has decided to "move on from Roblox ( RBLX ) to pursue his personal interest and focus on his next chapter," Baszucki said on an earnings conference call Thursday, according to a Capital IQ transcript. He will remain with the company as it looks for a new CFO, a process that's expected to take "some time," Baszucki said, adding that Guthrie joined Roblox ( RBLX ) in 2018.

The company has "its hands full" as it tries to replace Guthrie, Wedbush said. Another possible reason behind the stock decline is that Roblox's ( RBLX ) second-quarter bookings missed "the whisper," according to the note.

"On the whisper front, we believe that the (second-quarter) bookings expectation had been set unreasonably high, with certain investors expecting north of $975 million," the analysts said.

For the full year, the company now expects bookings of $4.18 billion to $4.23 billion, up from its prior outlook range of $4 billion to $4.1 billion. Wedbush had projected $4.05 billion, according to the note.

In the ongoing three-month period, the company expects bookings between $1 billion and $1.03 billion. Revenue is pegged between $860 million and $885 million.

Price: 39.06, Change: -2.47, Percent Change: -5.94