Etsy Rises After Surprise Profit From Services Sold To Sellers

Etsy Inc. posted a surprise profit in the first quarter thanks to strong gains in services sold to the users who sell merchandise on its site, and shares jumped in late trading. The online marketplace reported a profit of a penny a share on revenue of $81.85 million; analysts polled by FactSet expected Etsy to report a loss of 2 cents a share on revenue of $75.2 million. The beat came from one of two main revenue categories for Etsy, "seller services," which provided $43.5 million, a gain of nearly 60% from the year before and higher than the $39 million analysts expected. Etsy shares gained about 5% in late trading immediately after results were released, after closing with a 1.3% decrease at $8.40.