Dutch payments company Adyen beat half-year core profit expectations driven by market share gains, slower hiring and lower one-off expenses on Thursday, sending its shares more than 5% higher.

While the digital payments sector faces pressures from lower post-pandemic consumer spending and regulatory scrutiny, Adyen is outgrowing peers helped by international expansion and clients such as U.S.-based Cash App and Canada's Shopify.

Adyen's biggest growth driver is improving demand from existing clients and its ability to expand services for them, finance chief Ethan Tandowsky told Reuters in an interview.

"There's still room to grow, even in our most mature markets," Tandowsky said. This applies both to partnerships with payments platforms serving small and medium-sized businesses, and Adyen's more direct integrated services for large companies.

Adyen has a single-digit percent market share in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region and North America, leaving it ample room to grow there, it said.

It also pointed to a contract win with IKEA in Mexico and a new clearance to operate as an online payment aggregator in India as examples of its international expansion.

Its half-year core profit rose 32% to 423.1 million euros ($465.8 million), beating the average estimate of 413.39 million from 13 analysts polled by LSEG.

Net revenue grew 24% year-on-year to 913.4 million euros, while EBITDA margin expanded to 46% from 43% in the same period.

J.P.Morgan analysts said the results were positive given investors' cautious stance on the stock.

French rival Worldline in early August cut its 2024 forecast citing a sharp decline in demand in Europe, while Adyen lowered its 2026 guidance last November and said it would hire less people to cut costs.

Adyen said it hired 37 employees in the first half of 2024, down from 551 in the same period last year.

  - Reuters