The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price has shown tremendous strength on the charts since the end of July.
Whereas the S&P/ASX 200 index (ASX: XJO) has climbed 1.2% from July 30 until today, Afterpay shares are 38% in the green.
Moreover, Afterpay is pencilled in to report its FY21 earnings on Wednesday. Given these facts, it's worthwhile checking the rear-view mirror to see how the Afterpay share price fared after its last earnings report back in February.
What did Afterpay deliver back in February?
Afterpay outlined several investment highlights in its half year results, including:
- A 106% increase in sales to $9.8 billion; $10.1 billion on a constant currency basis
- Total income growth of 114% to $385.2 million in constant currency terms
- Mammoth 521% growth in EBITDA to $47.9 million
- Loss after tax of $79.2 million.
Afterpay explains its recognised loss of almost $80 million on the bottom line stemmed primarily from the net loss in fair value on its financial liabilities of about $65 million from its Clearpay business.
Conversely, the company grew its number of active customers to 13.1 million, an 80% increase year over year.
How did the market react?
Firstly, after its report was released, Afterpay announced a trading halt on its shares to undertake a capital raise.
Next, investors were less than impressed regarding the company's net loss after tax back in February, so it seems.
Perhaps many expected the company would turn a net profit; nonetheless, on the day of resuming trade, Afterpay shares immediately sunk 14% and closed at $119.52. That was a 21% drop into the red from the week prior.
Following this, the Afterpay share price continued its descent until April, partially reclaiming the losses sustained over the month prior.
The Afterpay share price has not recovered to its all-time high just prior to its earnings release in February. To illustrate, the Afterpay share price is still around 12.5% off its record high, despite its recent run on the charts.
Doubtlessly, there have been other catalysts along this time that have added further downward pressure on the company's share price.
However, Afterpay shareholders will no doubt be hoping for a different reaction when the buy now pay later company reports its FY21 earnings on Wednesday.
Especially as the Afterpay share price has gained 25% over the last month.
Afterpay share price snapshot
The Afterpay share price has climbed around 13% this year to date, after a choppy period from February to July.
This extends the previous 12 month's gain of 61%, which has far outpaced the broad index's return of about 25% over the past year.
Afterpay has a market capitalisation of $38.5 billion at the time of writing.
