Stitch Fix shares rise nearly 50% in early trading after yesterday’s earnings beat

Investors are buying into the shares of publicly traded Stitch Fix, the personal styling online clothes store, after it reported better-than-expected earnings yesterday.

Shares of the company’s stock were up $16.86, or 47.05%, in early trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

For the company’s fiscal first quarter, which ends October 31, Stitch Fix reported earnings of 9 cents a share. The company booked $490.4 million in revenue, a beat on analysts’ expectations that the company would see $481.2 million and lose 20 cents per share, according to Refinitiv data reported by CNBC.

“In Q1, we delivered $490 million in net revenue, reflecting 10% year-over-year growth, and grew our active client count to nearly 3.8 million, reflecting 10% year-over-year growth,” said the company’s chief executive Katrina Lake. “We’re excited about the momentum in our business, confident in the future ahead, and we expect to deliver between 20% and 25% growth for the full year.”

Even as traditional retail suffers, due to government responses to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, online retail is grabbing increasing shares of the market. Stitch Fix’s business is no exception.

“In a time period where many traditional brick and mortar retailers are still experiencing double-digit year over year revenue decreases in their most recent quarter, we delivered an increase of over 240,000 net active clients quarter over quarter, a return to double-digit, year-over-year active client growth, which we expect will increase further this fiscal year,” Lake wrote in a letter to shareholders.