Roblox Corp. RBLX, -3.48% shares continued to decline following Thursday’s close after the social-media platform released August metrics. On Thursday, the company said that its number of daily active users rose 24% to 59.9 million for the month of August, revenue was between $208 million and $211 million, for a 22% to 24% rise from a year ago, and bookings were up 5% to 7% to between $233 million to $237 million, held back by a strengthening U.S. Dollar. The actual numbers had been first been released about an hour before the market close, and coincided with a sharp stock price drop of about 7% within a few minutes to about $43. Shares, which had been up around 2.5% before the August numbers started to circulate, closed down 3.5% for the day at $43.50. After hours, shares declined another 2%. A month ago, Roblox shares fell after the company’s year-over-year bookings unexpectedly declined for a second quarter in a row but was quick to note that July numbers were improving. Starting the week, one analyst covering Roblox cautioned that the rise of the so-called metaverse should not be necessarily equated with success at Roblox. While the company is a forerunner in providing users the means to create virtual worlds and communities, Cowen analyst Doug Creutz said companies with deeper pockets like Meta Platforms Inc. META, -1.27%, Alphabet Inc. GOOG, -1.86% GOOGL, -1.99%, and Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -2.71% are going to provide Roblox with a ton of competition.
