wall street can’t make up its mind about roblox earnings shares of the online videogame platform initially sank in afterhours trading tuesday only to surge as soon as the market opened on wednesday after opening down at 2192 roblox ticker rblx shares rallied as high as 2837 shortly after the market opened before paring gains shares of the firm which provides a platform that lets users make games and interact online closed up 34 to 2397 the sp 500 fell 17 one possible reason for the disconnect is the firm’s quarterly earnings call was wednesday morning instead of shortly after the release on tuesday during the call executives provided upbeat commentary about efforts to improve monetization on the platform by better personalizing search functions and offering more advertising the firm is popular with children and preteens though its user base is getting older the company suggested ways it can tailor discovery based on a user’s age and help them find experiences they may be more willing to spend money on chief financial officer michael guthrie also said the yearoveryear growth rate of bookings—a form of adjusted revenue—may have seen a bottom in march the company faced tough comparisons as it lapped pandemicdriven user growth numbers “april was a little bit better than march” guthrie said according to a transcript provided by sentieo “we suspect that may will be a little bit better and that will continue as we go through the summer and that ought to shrink that gap between user growth numbers and the rate of bookings growth and that’s our expectation especially as we go through the summer” analysts were also weighing in on the stock stifel analyst drew e crum who has a buy rating and 53 target price wrote wednesday that the first quarter results were slightly worse than he expected while april bookings were slightly better “with this update the company seemed to convey a more urgent approach to improving monetization” he wrote referring to updates from the firm on search advertising and usergenerated content another possible reason for the stock’s volatility is its high short interest recently 317 million shares were sold short or 108 of shares available for trading according to bloomberg data when short sellers rush to cover their position that can create shortterm buying pressure roblox shares have surged after earnings reports before whatever the reason for the turnaround roblox shares could use the momentum the stock is still down 68 in the past 12 months