No End In Sight As Etsy Is In Freefall

Etsy’s (ETSY) stock is in slow motion free-fall. The unique retailer of  handcrafted goods has so many things working against it.

Lockup expiration

On January 11, lockup expiration meant insiders are free to start selling shares and to cash in before the stock drop even more. There is up to around 21 percent of float, or 23.7 million shares, that insiders may sell. The excess supply will clearly add to the selling pressure Etsy is facing.

Interest in Etsy falling, worse for Amazon.com

In the last half of 2015, interest for Amazon.com, as measured by the number of mentions, fell. Mentions for Etsy fell too, but not as much. Amazon’s Handmade competes with Etsy. Lower interest for the dotcom giant’s new initiative is negative for Etsy. It suggests consumers are growing less interested in the handcrafts market:

Source: www.tickertags.com

Tarnished Brand

Etsy’s allowance for Asian manufacturers to sell low-quality, cheap products on the site is hurting its reputation. If the company continues to associate its branding with mass-market products, it will make the site less unique and no different from bigger sites like Amazon.com. Etsy may boost revenue doing this, but in the long run, profitability will shrink. Competition is clearly already picking it up. If Amazon.com’s foray in this market succeeds (despite lower search indicating), Etsy’s stock price will just keep falling.

Your bottom line

Expect Etsy’s stock to continue underperforming. Investors should stay away from this deflated momentum stock whose fad has come and gone.

Disclosure: None.

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Alexis Renault 8 years ago Member's comment

No! I love $ETSY. I still have faith in the stock, but agree they need to come up with some solutions to these problems fast!