Yelp Posts Results Early; CFO to Step Down
February 08 2016 - 02:20PM
Dow Jones News
Yelp Inc. on Monday said its chief financial officer was leaving
as it reported another quarterly loss, driven by higher
spending.
Revenue, however, jumped 40%, bolstered by a 35% increase in
revenue from local advertising.
The San Francisco company projects the top-line growth to
continue, estimating revenue will reach $154 million to $157
million for the current quarter and $685 million to $700 million
for the year. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters project $154.4
million for the quarter and $687.4 million for the year.
With the surprise announce of the results—Yelp had been expected
to post results after markets closed—shares eased earlier sharp
declines and were recently down 5.8%. Earlier in the session, the
stock had dropped as much as 13%.
The company didn't immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Chief Financial Officer Rob Krolik, who had joined the company
in 2011, is expected to stay until Dec. 15 or when his replacement
is hired, the company said.
Founded in 2004, Yelp went public in 2012. Like Facebook Inc.,
which was also founded in 2004, Yelp makes the bulk of its money by
selling advertisements, but it has struggled to remain
profitable.
The San Francisco company, which last year called off plans to
sell itself, has amassed millions of consumer reviews from
restaurants to dentists, hair salons and federal agencies, but its
results have faltered. At the same time, tension with Google, which
once tried to buy Yelp and is now part of Alphabet Inc., has
intensified as Google pushes its own listings. Yelp relies on
search engines like Google to attract users.
Over all, Yelp reported a fourth-quarter loss of $22.2 million,
or 29 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $32.7
million, or 42 cents a share. Excluding stock-based compensation
and other items, profit was 11 cents a share, compared with 19
cents a year earlier.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had projected an adjusted
loss of 3 cents a share.
Revenue rose to $153.7 million, in line with the company's
projection of $149.5 million to $154.5 million.
Costs, meanwhile, surged 57% to $160.1 million.
Yelp said it had about 20 million unique devices using its app
in the quarter, up 38% from the year-ago period but roughly
unchanged from the previous quarter. Yelp reported about 66 million
average monthly unique visitors on mobile, down from 89 million in
the previous quarter and 72 million in the year-ago period, and 75
million on desktop, compared with 79 million in the previous
quarter.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 08, 2016 14:05 ET (19:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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