Updates share moves, adds graphic, CFO comments in paragraphs 7-9, analyst comment in paragraph 15

By Alessandro Parodi

Feb 13 (Reuters) - Adyen's ADYEN.AS shares rose as much as 15% on Thursday after the Dutch payments company reported full-year core earnings above market expectations, and forecast higher net revenue growth and continued margin expansion in 2025.

The Amsterdam-listed shares were the top gainers on the pan-European STOXX index .STOXX at 0345 GMT. Two traders cited the strong set of results and revenue forecast as drivers for the share price surge.

They reached their highest level since August 2022, adding 6.8 billion euros ($7.09 billion) to the company's market cap, based on LSEG data.

Adyen has weathered a post-pandemic drop in online spending that has knocked investor confidence in the digital payments sector thanks to a more diversified customer base and partnerships with companies like eBay EBAY.O and Cash App in North America, Zalando ZALG.DE in Europe and Starbucks SBUX.O in Mexico.

The online spending downturn has instead hit the market value of rivals Worldline WLN.PA and Nexi NEXI.PA, whose shares have underperformed Adyen's in recent years. They were up 0.9% and 2.4% respectively following its results.

Adyen plans to expand its reach in hospitality, insurance and healthcare, and to offer unified commerce solutions which combine digital and in-person payment processing in the same platform, its CFO Ethan Tandowsky told analysts in a post-earnings call.

"This is really something that is resonating with our customers," he said.

The expansion will require a step up in hiring this year, especially in North America, Tandowsky added, from 148 net new joiners in 2024. Adyen employs over 4,300 people globally.

Broker Stifel said the group's estimates on its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) might be conservative, given the volume growth acceleration across the board on an underlying basis.

Adyen's annual EBITDA rose 34% to 992.3 million euros, compared with the 974.7 million euros expected on average by 29 analysts polled by LSEG.

This was supported by strong net revenue growth, particularly in the EMEA region, and digital partnerships with customers including Adobe ADBE.O, it said.

The Photoshop-maker "continues to globally expand across our payment solutions, and has in turn grown our share of wallet as one of their primary payment providers in North America and beyond," Adyen said.

Net revenue rose 23% to 2.0 billion euros in the year to end-December, meeting analyst expectations, as processed payment volumes rose 33% to 1.29 trillion euros.

"We see these results as reassuring on Adyen's ability to accelerate growth towards its mid-term targets", Bank of America analysts said.

Adyen confirmed its 2026 guidance for annual net revenue growth in the low- to high-twenties percent, and an improvement in EBITDA margin to above 50% in 2026.

($1 = 0.9588 euros)

(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi in Gdansk, editing by Kim Coghill, Kirsten Donovan, Jane Merriman and Christina Fincher)

((alessandro.parodi@thomsonreuters.com))