Wix.com Lowers Full-Year Free Cash Flow Margin Guidance Despite Third-Quarter Beat

10:56 AM EST, 11/10/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Wix.com (WIX) lowered its full-year free cash flow margin outlook on Tuesday as the Israeli web developer accelerates marketing investments in its Base44 artificial intelligence platform, even though it reported better-than-expected third-quarter results. The company now anticipates free cash flow margin, excluding acquisition-related and restructuring costs, to be about 16% for 2026, compared with its previous guidance of a margin in the high teens. The firm cited accelerated sales and marketing investments in Base44 as the reason for the outlook revision. Base44 is an AI-powered platform that allows users to create applications without writing code. Wix acquired the company in 2025. The company still projects Base44's adjusted gross margin to end the year above 60% and approach that of the core Wix business next year, "driven by meaningful reductions in AI inference costs," Chief Financial Officer Lior Shemesh said in a statement. "Base44 gross margins have seen material improvements on shifting to Wix's internal Base 1 model and better inference costs overall," Wedbush Securities said in a Tuesday client note. Wix shares slipped 0.6% in Tuesday trade, having lost about 32% so far this year. The Israeli firm expects further gross margin improvement to be reinvested into Base44 sales and marketing in the ongoing three-month period, amid elevated demand for the platform. "We believe our strategic investments in Base44 are positioning us to capture share in a rapidly expanding market - with Base44 (annual recurring revenue) today close to $250 million," Chief Financial Officer Lior Shemesh said in a statement. The company sees this ARR momentum to gradually translate into bookings and revenue dollars over the coming quarters. For the September quarter, the company's adjusted earnings declined to $1.42 per share from $1.68 the year before, but topped the FactSet-polled consensus of $1.40. Revenue improved 13% to $570.2 million, ahead of the Street's view for $566.3 million. Bookings climbed 11% to $573 million, exceeding the Street's $566.6 million forecast. Bookings from the creative subscriptions segment rose 11% to $407 million, while business solutions advanced 12% to $166 million. Partners revenue, which includes sales generated through agencies and freelancers that build sites or applications for other users, gained 11% on a yearly basis to $212.4 million. The growth was below Wedbush's forecast of 15%, it said in its note. Wix continues to expect low- to mid-teens percentage revenue growth for the full year, while the average analyst estimate is for a gain of 14%. Bookings are still pegged to rise by a low-teens percentage. For the ongoing quarter, Wix projects revenue to rise by a low-double-digit percentage, with bookings growth continuing to lag revenue amid softness in Partners bookings. Meanwhile, Wix appointed President Nir Zohar as co-chief executive of the company alongside Avishai Abrahami, effective immediately. Both Abrahami and Zohar co-founded the firm. Last month, internet domain registry and web hosting company GoDaddy (GDDY) said it expects its full-year revenue to be toward the high end of a $5.22 billion to $5.26 billion range and reported better-than-expected third-quarter results. Price: 70.65, Change: +0.90, Percent Change: +1.29