Adyen (ADYEN.AS) is slowly recovering its poise. The $48 billion Dutch payment company on Thursday reported 22% growth in net revenue to 1.6 billion euros in 2023, with a 46% EBITDA margin. Although that’s still below the stellar 55% level it managed a year ago, it’s an improvement from the 43% Adyen reported for the first half of 2023 – which prompted shocked investors to wipe over 20 billion euros from its market value. Signs things are recovering prompted shares to jump 22% on Thursday to as high as 1,448 euros.
That’s still 8% below their level prior to the August plunge. But investors have some grounds to be patient. Adyen is sacrificing some of its EBITDA margin now to hire talent so it can refine its payment products. In 2023 the company added over 800 more employees, and it plans to add a few hundred more in 2024. It’s a good time to do that: tech giants like Alphabet (GOOGL.O) and rival PayPal (PYPL.O) are laying off staff.
Adyen trades on 32 times likely earnings for 2026 – the year it thinks its EBITDA margin will hit 50% again. European rival Nexi (NEXII.MI) is on just 9 times, using LSEG data. But Adyen is also growing at an annual clip of over 20%, against Nexi’s 7% at best. If it keeps delivering, investors will stick around. (By Karen Kwok)
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