Business
Wayfair stock surges 20% as earnings beat, revenue jumps
Online home goods company Wayfair reported a jump in third-quarter revenue on Tuesday, as it beat Wall Street estimates on the top and bottom lines.
The company said total net revenue increased 8.1% year over year.
Here’s how the company performed in its third quarter, compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 70 cents adjusted vs. 43 cents expected
- Revenue: $3.12 billion vs. $3.02 billion expected
Wayfair shares climbed more than 20% on Tuesday.
For the period ended Sept. 30, Wayfair reported a net loss of $99 million, or 76 cents per share, compared with a loss of $74 million, or 60 cents per share, the year prior.
The company’s U.S. revenue rose 8.6% year over year to $2.7 billion, while international revenue climbed 4.6% to $389 million. Wayfair said its total net revenue excluding its Germany exit jumped 9% year over year.
The revenue increase comes as the overall home goods sector has seen recent struggles, partly due to rising inflation and lower home turnover during a stretch of high interest rates. The sector has also faced challenges in President Donald Trump‘s furniture tariffs, in addition to other duties — though rates on imported goods from many countries are now lower than Trump proposed earlier this year.
CFO Kate Gulliver told CNBC that the company doesn’t credit the growth to any macro-related factors like tariffs or interest rates.
“We think it’s really being driven by our share gain, and that, we believe is really coming from a confluence of factors and initiatives that we started over a year ago that are now starting to bear fruit,” Gulliver said.
Those initiatives include what Gulliver calls the company’s “core recipe” – price, product availability and speed – in addition to growth from its loyalty program, site improvement and physical retail. The retailer opened its first large store in Illinois last year to ride the wave of physical stores’ comeback. Based on that success, it plans to open another location in Yonkers, New York, in early 2027.
Though tariff policy has created uncertainty for the company, she said it has been able to lean on the strength of its model: operating as a marketplace on the back end and as a retailer on the front end.
Wayfair saw a post-pandemic slump in sales in what was a “somewhat challenged” time for the home goods category, Gulliver said, but the past year has brought increased momentum. Despite tariff volatility, Wayfair’s stock had gained roughly 95% this year as of Monday’s close.
CEO Niraj Shah added in the earnings release that the company’s delivered orders for the quarter grew 5% year over year.
“Our 6.7% Adjusted EBITDA margin marks the highest level achieved in Wayfair’s history outside of the pandemic period,” Shah said on a call with analysts. “As we’ve promised, substantial profitability flow through is powered by a strong contribution margin and fixed cost discipline as our business has returned to growth.”
Wayfair said its active customers totaled 21.2 million at the end of the quarter, a 2.3% decrease year over year.
Shah added on the Tuesday call that Wayfair’s growth plan is driven by “Wayfair-specific factors” and is “not reliant upon a recovery in the housing market.” He said the company saw few isolated examples of early purchases to avoid tariffs like a “short-lived” increase in large appliance sales in the early spring.
“We see our outperformance as structural share capture driven by our strong day-to-day execution against the core recipe, the early success of the new programs we’ve been able to launch and from the broad gains we have brought to bear from our technology team,” Shah said.
Getty ImagesInsurers need to do more to improve how they handle claims and make it clearer to customers what their policies cover, the UK’s finance regulator has said.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was responding to a “super-complaint” by consumer group Which? about the home and travel insurance sectors.
The regulator acknowledged some problems needed addressing, and said it would expand its scrutiny of how claims are processed and how clear policies are to customers.
Consumer groups said the FCA must follow this up with strong action and see it as a first step to fundamental reform.
A super-complaint is rare, and only used by consumer groups when they believe a large number of people are being significantly harmed by practices across a particular sector.
Consumer group Which? had argued that the home and travel insurance sectors were “broken”. It said that in some cases making a claim to an insurance company could be a worse experience than the distress of the original incident.
The super-complaint was based on three areas of concern. The first was the way that claims are handled, with many being outsourced by insurers to specialists.
The second was the sales practices of insurers, which the consumer group argued were inappropriate and led to widespread confusion over what was covered in a policy.
Finally, it accused the FCA, as the regulator, of failing to provide an appropriate degree of protection for consumers.
Getty ImagesMillions of people across the UK take out insurance policies they hope they will never need to draw on.
Some 22 million home insurance policies were in force last year, with consumers paying more than £7bn in premiums. During the year, consumers made almost 900,000 claims, with insurers paying out a total of £3.2bn.
There were more than 6.8 million travel insurance policies, with premiums of £1.2bn paid last year. Some 600,000 claims led to payouts of more £400m.
But Which? highlighted that acceptance of claims and subsequent payouts were much less likely among home and travel insurance than motor and pet policies.
The FCA found that in 2024, 99% of motor claims were accepted, compared with 80% of standalone single trip travel claims and 74% of home content-only claims.
The regulator said that this, in part, reflected the lower levels of understanding among consumers of what their insurance policy covered.
Graeme Reynolds, director of competition at the FCA, said the regulator would “expand our existing workplan” to ensure improvements to the claims process and consumer understanding of their cover.
“We will continue to hold firms and their senior leaders to account for making improvements, to help build trust and make sure people get fair value insurance,” he said.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI), which represents companies, said the improvements demanded by the FCA were “a top priority” for the sector.
The FCA said it had already addressed various areas of concern in the sector, but consumer groups – including Which? – said more action was needed.
Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy, said the FCA must now bring about meaningful change for consumers.
“These issues have been allowed to fester for years, so the FCA must now seize the opportunity to take strong action to stamp out widespread bad practice and issues with how the markets are working,” she said.
James Daley, managing director of consumer group Fairer Finance, said: “The [FCA] response is unlikely to be sufficient to get to grips with the many and growing problems in this sector.
“The insurance market is caught in a race to the bottom on price – leading to the hollowing out of products, as well as poorer claims experiences.”
Mahindra’s New Tata Sierra Rival SUV: Mahindra has several new models lined up, including petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric SUVs across various segments. One of the most talked-about upcoming products is a new midsize SUV that will take on the Hyundai Creta and Tata Sierra. Mahindra has not officially shared product details yet. Still, this new SUV is expected to carry the XUV badge. It will likely be built on Mahindra’s new NU_IQ modular platform. This platform supports ICE, hybrid and electric powertrains. That gives the brand a lot of flexibility for future models.
Reports suggest this Sierra rival could be the production version of the Vision S concept. Mahindra showcased this concept on Independence Day earlier this year. Some reports also hint that the final model might join the Scorpio family lineup.
The Vision S concept has a bold design. At the front, it gets Mahindra’s Twin Peaks logo and triple vertical LED lights on either side. The headlamps have an inverted L shape. The bumper looks sporty and houses radar and parking sensors. A raised bonnet and pixel-style fog lamps add to the tough look.
From the side, the SUV looks off-road ready. It has a tall stance, massive cladding and wheel arches, and large 19-inch wheels with red brake calipers. The concept even shows a jerry can and a side ladder. Some of these features may not make it to the final version or could be offered as accessories.
At the rear, the concept gets inverted L-shaped tail-lamps, pixel lighting on the bumper and a spare wheel mounted on the tailgate. Inside, the Vision S shows a modern cabin. It has a new steering wheel with Vision S branding, a large touchscreen with NU UX software, wireless phone connectivity and a panoramic sunroof.
The cabin uses dual-tone upholstery across seats, doors and dashboard. The visible fuel cap suggests an ICE setup. The production version is expected to come with petrol and diesel engine options. Mahindra’s new Sierra rival is likely to hit the market around 2027.
AI technology and gaming launches have helped drive higher sales for electronics retailer Currys, which also hailed a recovery of its Nordics arm.
The company said its financial performance was improving despite a “muted” consumer environment and “unhelpful” cost pressures.
It reported revenues totalling £4.2 billion for the six months to November, up 4% when compared like-for-like with the same period last year.
Adjusted pre-tax profits more than doubled to £22 million year-on-year.
In the UK and Ireland, where Currys has almost 300 shops, computing was the strongest category for sales with AI technology and new games leading the charge.
It also highlighted surging demand for smaller categories like gaming accessories, emerging technology like health and beauty innovations, and a 12% jump in the sale of Windows laptops.
Mobile products sold well over the half-year, with its mobile network brand iD increasing its share of the wider market, the firm said.
But it reported a dip in the sale of consumer electronics, including TVs and speakers, which the retailer attributed to there being a spike in demand last year during the men’s Euro 2024 football tournament.
Chief executive Alex Baldock said it was “pleasing that strong top-line growth is translating into improved profitability”.
But he added: “In the UK and Ireland, the consumer environment is more muted, and cost headwinds are unhelpful.”
Currys said profits in the UK were being weighed down by increases to the national minimum wage and employer national insurance contributions, from last year’s autumn budget.
These cost increases were not being fully offset by savings it has been striving to make across the business.
Nevertheless, Currys hailed an improved performance for its Nordics arm after launching a turnaround for the struggling business.
Revenues increased by 4% on a like-for-like basis for the region, which has more than 400 stores both owned and franchised, and earnings grew.
Shares in Currys jumped by about a 10th in early trading on Thursday.
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