Pushpay Holdings shares rise 2.7 per cent after it lifted earnings guidance for 2020 by stripping out costs.
The digital church collection payment operator estimates earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and foreign currency movements for the year ending March 31 2020 will come in at US$23-25 million ($24.8m-$27m). Earlierguidance predicted earnings of US$18.5-20.5m.
This is despite fewer new customers in 2020, which has seen Pushpay today lower operating revenue guidance to US$121-124m from US$122.5-125.5m.
The shares rose to a two-month high $3.49, taking this year's gain to about 13 per cent.
The lower end of the operating revenue guidance is still 26 per cent up from the US$95.9m it posted for 2019, which was a 42 per cent improvement on the year prior.
"As previously indicated at our 2019 annual meeting, new customer acquisition over the start of the financial year was lower than the previous year. We have subsequently adjusted our operating revenue guidance range to reflect this," Pushpay's chief executive Bruce Gordon said.
Pushpay said costs were expected rise by mid-single digits, but efficiencies and changes in lease accounting standards meant that expenses will be lower year-on-year.
The company said gross margin is in line with expectations at more than 63 per cent and it anticipates total processing volume of US$4.8-5.0 billion for the year ending 31 March 2020.
