The Freelancer Ltd (ASX: FLN) share price woke up to a rude awakening today, following the release of the company's half-year results.
At the time of writing, shares in the global freelancing and outsourcing marketplace have tumbled 15.93% to 95 cents.
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Why is the Freelancer share price down double digits?
Freelancer revealed 1H21 group net revenue had tipped 5.7% lower on the prior corresponding period (pcp) to $27.8 million.
The slight decline in revenue was underpinned by weak currency movements. This drove a negative impact of 17.4% in the first half.
This trickled down to both negative operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) and operating net profit after tax of -$2 million and -$1.6 million respectively.
The company's net operating cash flow also declined from $6.2 million in 1H20 to $2.7 million in 1H21.
The weaker financial performance could be a reason why the Freelancer share price is experiencing such a heavy sell-off this morning.
Despite a slight decline in revenue, the company experienced a record in gross payment volumes (GPV), the total payments to Freelancer for products and services transacted. 1H21 GPV came in at a record $566 million, up 35.9% on the pcp.
Pleasingly, the company believes it is on track to achieve its milestone of $1 billion in GPV (through bank accounts).
In addition, Freelancer maintained a solid cash and cash equivalent position of $31.8 million. This was down $2.5 million or 7.4% on 31 December 2020.
The decrease includes the $4 million used to acquire Australia's largest online heavy haulage freight marketplace, Loadshift.
A closer look at today's sell-off
The sharp sell-off in the Freelancer share price comes off the back of significant trading volume.
Approximately 540,000 shares changed hands in the first 30 minutes of trade. To add some perspective, the company's 10-day average volume is only 139,500.
