(Yahoo!Finance) - Robinhood (HOOD) announced Wednesday that next Monday, May 16, the company will begin allowing users to trade 24 hours a day during the week on some stocks and ETFs.
The company announced these new trading hours — which will run from 8:00 a.m. ET on Monday through 8:00 p.m. ET Friday — alongside its first quarter results Wednesday afternoon. Robinhood will enable around-the-clock trading on more than 40 stocks and ETFs, including names like Apple (AAPL) and Tesla (TSLA).
"This is an exciting upgrade to our stock trading product, it allows our customers to better manage their risk and take advantage of opportunities, no matter what time of day they arise," Vlad Tenev, co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, said during the company's earnings call.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based trading platform, once criticized for its reliance on payment for order flow, has been aggressively launching features in order to grow revenue and ultimately reach profitability.
In the first quarter, the company reported revenue that grew 47% over last year to $441 million, beating Wall Street expectations for $422 million. Robinhood's adjusted loss per share came in at $0.57, a penny more than estimated.
Monthly active users in the first quarter totaled 11.8 million, up from 11.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, but down about 25% from last year.
Shares of Robinhood were up around 3% on Thursday.
"As we continue to roll out new products — that's just going to further diversify and really strengthen the revenue profile of our business," CFO Jason Warnick said during the call.
In January the platform launched IRA accounts with a 1% match. Tenev said customers have already invested over $500 million into their IRAs. The company also plans to offer advisory services, as well as futures trading by year-end, pending regulatory approval.
'We keep our customer cash liquid'
Robinhood has also been luring customer deposits amid the recent banking turmoil, offering Gold tier subscribers a 4.65% yield on their uninvested cash.
"Robinhood is not a bank. We keep our customer cash liquid and we don't have the risk of asset-liability mismatch that banks have to manage," said Warnick.
"In March, when all the banking turbulence happened, our customers deposited $1.5 billion with us. So we think we're in a really good position," he added.
Robinhood was one of the first tech companies to announce layoffs starting in April of last year as the markets began turning lower and interest rates began rising. In August, the company said it would cut another 23% of its workforce.
The company grew in hyper mode during the pandemic as it prepared to go public in 2021. A low interest rate environment and the GameStop (GME) 'meme stock' frenzy ballooned usage among young retail investors during that time.
As the investing environment has changed, Robinhood has emphasized new business lines, eventual profitability, and growth along with the financial needs of its user base.
"I think we've shown that this is a resilient business," Tenev said Wednesday. "The team moves fast and innovates, and we're really pleased with how diversified the business has become, and we see opportunities to keep pulling on that and do it even further."
By Ines Ferré · Markets Reporter
