Consumer review website operator Yelp Inc reported an unexpected second-quarter profit and raised its full-year revenue forecast as investments in sales and marketing led to more businesses and consumers signing up for its services.
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The company, which previous year called off plans to sell itself, has amassed millions of consumer reviews for small businesses, from restaurants to dentists’ offices and hair salons, but results have faltered amid intense competition from the likes of internet giant Google, now part of Alphabet Inc.
“We had a great second quarter with local revenue growth accelerating to 41% year over year”, said Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman in a release accompanying earnings.
Yelp’s mobile app was accessed by 23 million unique devices on a monthly average basis, up 27 percent from a year earlier. Donaker will be replaced by Jed Nachman as COO.
The firm said cumulative reviews grew by 30 per cent year-on-year to around 108m. Geoff Donaker will be retiring from the COO position after 11 years with the company, but Yelp did say that Mr. Donaker will serve as a strategic advisor and that he will retain his seat on Yelp’s board of directors.
That helped Yelp’s local advertising accounts increase 32 percent to 128,000 in the quarter, roughly in line with analysts average estimate of 128,100, according to FactSet StreetAccount.
Thirteen analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $169.7 million. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected revenue of $179.4 million. In the final minutes of trading on Tuesday, shares hit $32.59, a rise of 25 percent in the last 12 months.
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For the full year, the team said it envisions EBITDA of $100 million to $108 million, on revenue of $700 million to $708 million, once again ahead of estimates for $699 million.
