Airbnb stock has intrigued investors in growth stocks since its debut on the Nasdaq in December 2020. From an initial public offering price of $68 per share, ABNB stock quickly soared 223% to an all-time high of 219.94 on Feb. 11, 2021.

Eventually, ABNB stock hit a nine-month high in February. And the day after the release of its fourth-quarter results on Feb. 14, the stock was up 13%. In a letter to shareholders, the company said Airbnb’s earnings were 48 cents per share, up 500 percent from a year ago and beating Wall Street expectations of 25 cents. Revenue jumped 24% to $1.90 billion, which also beat the consensus forecast.

The fourth-quarter results continued the travel company’s streak of strong revenue growth; Airbnb has turned a profit in five of the last six quarters. Over the same time period, top line sales were up 67%, 78%, 70%, 58%, 29% and 24% from a year ago. Thus, sales growth has slowed in recent quarters, but continues to hold strong.

We ended 2022 with 6,811 employees, and we currently expect to continue to hire at a reasonable pace in 2023. Compared to 2019, headcount is down 5%, while revenue is up 75%.

In 2023, ABNB stock will no doubt start out very buoyant.

On Feb. 15, after the earnings report was released, the stock began a meteoric spurt. The stock is up 13% on its highest volume in three months. Despite the pullback in recent sessions, the stock is mostly holding on to the key near-term technical level, the 21-day exponential moving average.