The Airtasker Ltd (ASX: ART) share price has dropped over the last six months. But the company is due to release its FY22 half-year result tomorrow, what are some things to focus on?
Before getting that, for investors that don't know, Airtasker describes itself as Australia's leading online marketplace for local services, connecting people and businesses who need work done with people who want to work.
These are some of the things that could feature:
Revenue and gross marketplace volume (GMV) growth
The business is trying to rapidly scale. Revenue and marketplace volume growth are the first two things that the company tells investors about in each of its updates.
In FY21, the company achieved revenue of $26.6 million, up 38% year on year. FY21 GMV was $153.1 million with growth of 35% year on year.
The second quarter of FY22 included the ending of lockdowns in NSW and Victoria. Quarterly GMV was $48.6 million, up 39% quarter-on-quarter. Second quarter revenue was $8.1 million, up 37.5% quarter-on-quarter.
The average task value continues to improve, with increasing demand for local services. In the second quarter, the average task value rose 24% to $255.
As a result of the underlying GMV growth trajectory and clear outlook on no further lockdowns, Airtasker decided to increase its FY22 second half GMV volume guidance from $105 million to $110 million – that guidance was increased by 4.8%.
Will the company stick with that guidance? Increase it?
In the absence of statutory net profit after tax (NPAT), revenue and the growth rate can be key focuses for investors when considering the Airtasker share price.
The broker Morgans thinks that Airtasker's growth runway is attractive.
Gross profit margin
Airtasker has a very high gross profit margin of 93%, which is one of the highest on the ASX. In FY21 the payment costs were 4.9% and insurance costs were 2.1%.
The ASX tech share puts this high margin down to its user-aligned business model and light-touch operations which make the gross margins possible.
What will happen with the gross profit margin this time?
International growth
Airtasker management point to an enormous global opportunity for existing local service industries across Australia, the US and the UK. In Australia, it has reached a 0.3% market penetration of the $52 billion market. It points out that 0.3% of the UK market would be $210 million of GMV and 0.3% of the US market would be $1.5 billion of GMV.
In the second quarter of FY22, UK GMV was up 121% and the US posted task growth of 71% quarter-on-quarter.
In the first six months of launching in the US, Airtasker has focused on four key cities – Atlanta, Kansas City, Dallas and Miami. It's trying to create a steadily increasing flow of job opportunities. But additional Airtasker marketplaces are also emerging in non-core cities across the US.
The company may provide some more colour on its international growth progress and plans.
It's spending to achieve to achieve more growth. This could help the Airtasker share price.
Growth spending
A few weeks ago, Airtasker said that it was going to increase its marketing investment.
The company also continues to invest in its technology to grow engagement and task numbers. For example, the initial launch of 'smart tasker alerts' led to 34% growth of tasker engagement.
It's investing significantly into core organic growth marketing channels such as SEO, content and CRM.
Marketing operations teams have been established to execute on responsive, local and seasonal campaigns.
A global campaign marketing investment in working-media is to be heavily skewed to the second half with a 25%-75% split.
The company may decide to further outline some of the progress here.
