Yelp Raises Annual Revenue Guidance
May 05 2016 - 5:40PM
Dow Jones News
Yelp Inc. on Thursday raised its revenue projection for the year
following better-than-expected results in the first quarter, even
as higher spending drove a fifth consecutive quarterly loss for the
online-review purveyor.
The San Francisco company now expects $690 million to $702
million in revenue for the year, compared with its earlier view of
$685 million to $700 million.
For the current quarter, it projects $167 million to $171
million in revenue, compared with analysts' projected $167.7
million, according to Thomson Reuters.
Shares, down 45% over the past 12 months, rose 9% to $23.34 in
after-hours trading.
Founded in 2004, Yelp went public in 2012 and makes money by
selling advertisements. Still, it has struggled to remain
profitable.
The company, which last year called off plans to sell itself,
has amassed millions of consumer reviews for businesses such as
restaurants, dentists' offices and hair salons, along with
government 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 loss of $15.5 million, or 20 cents a
share, compared with a loss of $1.3 million, or 2 cents a share, a
year earlier. Excluding stock-based compensation and other items,
Yelp reported a profit of 8 cents a share, down from 10 cents a
year earlier.
Analysts had projected a loss of 16 cents a share.
Revenue rose 34% to $158.6 million, bolstered by a 34% increase
in local advertising accounts and above the company's projections.
Costs, meanwhile, rose 41% to $172.9 million.
Yelp reported about 69 million average monthly unique visitors
on mobile, compared with 66 million in the previous quarter, and 77
million on desktop, compared with 75 million in the previous
quarter.
About 21 million unique devices used its app in the latest
period, up from about 20 million in the previous quarter, the
company said.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 05, 2016 17:25 ET (21:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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