Wayfair sinks after posting a bigger-than-expected loss

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• Wayfair shares fell 6% early Thursday after the online retailer's first-quarter loss came in wider than Wall Street expected.
• Wayfair said it had 16.4 million active customers, a 39% jump from the same time last year.
• Shares remain within striking distance of their all-time high set in March.
• Watch Wayfair trade live.

Wayfair, the online home-goods retailer, reported a wider-than-expected loss in its first quarter, sending shares down by nearly 6% early Thursday.

"Our ongoing investments in building our logistics infrastructure, deepening our product offering, and finding new ways to serve our customer are just a few of the many areas that are driving the momentum we are seeing today," CEO and co-founder Niraj Shah said in the release.

Here's what Wayfair reported, compared with what analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting:

• Revenue: $1.95 billion versus $1.92 billion expected.
• Adjusted loss per share: $1.62 versus $1.60 expected.
• Adjusted net income: -$147.96 million versus $146.73 million.

Despite the company's quarterly loss, there were some bright spots in the results.

Wayfair said it had 16.4 million active customers in the first quarter, representing a 39% jump from the same period last year. Meanwhile the average order's price tag was $237, a $1 increase versus a year ago.

Notably, the company reported 53.4% of total orders from Wayfair's direct retail business were placed on a mobile device, up from 49.2% in the first quarter of 2018.

Wayfair shares have soared 81% so far this year, hitting an all-time high of $173.72 apiece in March. As of the close on Wednesday, the stock was about 6% below that level.

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