Instacart’s fourth quarter saw a strong positive market response as the company surpassed Wall Street’s revenue and profit expectations, with management attributing performance to robust user growth and deeper engagement. CEO Chris Rogers emphasized that growth was driven by momentum across both its consumer marketplace and enterprise partnerships, highlighting new integrations with major retailers and increased adoption of its advertising solutions. Notably, Instacart expanded its footprint internationally through partnerships with Costco in Europe and advanced its in-store technology offerings. Management credited the company’s focus on grocery-specific technology and its ability to manage complex retailer relationships as core reasons for the quarter’s success.

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While we enjoy listening to the management's commentary, our favorite part of earnings calls are the analyst questions. Those are unscripted and can often highlight topics that management teams would rather avoid or topics where the answer is complicated. Here is what has caught our attention.

Our Top 5 Analyst Questions From Instacart’s Q4 Earnings Call

• Douglas Anmuth (JPMorgan) asked about the opportunity from enterprise adoption; CEO Chris Rogers emphasized significant runway in both launching new partners and expanding with existing ones, particularly through deeper integrations.

• Nikhil Devnani (Bernstein) questioned the impact of competition and drivers of recent acceleration; Rogers noted that growth was broad-based and said, “The sentiment around the competitive impact to Instacart is very overblown.”

• Charles Larkin (Oppenheimer) inquired about advertising strength and underlying adoption; Rogers attributed outperformance to a successful diversification strategy and increased scale in Carrot Ads partnerships.

• Shweta Khajuria (Wolfe Research) asked about international growth and local commerce; Rogers explained the disciplined approach to new markets and reaffirmed focus on grocery as the primary growth vector.

• Eric Sheridan (Goldman Sachs) requested updates on Instacart+ adoption; Rogers highlighted growing membership and stated that Instacart+ members drive the majority of gross transaction value and exhibit higher retention.

Catalysts in Upcoming Quarters

In the coming quarters, the StockStory team will be monitoring (1) the pace of enterprise platform adoption and international expansion, particularly through new retail partnerships; (2) the scaling of AI-powered tools like Cart Assistant and their influence on customer engagement and operational efficiency; and (3) continued growth and resilience in the advertising business amid evolving macroeconomic conditions. Execution on in-store technology deployments and additional retailer integrations will also be key markers of Instacart’s strategic progress.

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