Groupon Q1 guidance for sales and earnings disappoint shares drop

(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) provided a forecast for the current-quarter that lagged Wall Street’s expectations as the company that once dominated the fast-growing online coupons arena transforms into a broader e-commerce site. Shares slid.

Revenue is forecast to be in the range of $790 million to $840 million in the January-to-March quarter the Chicago Illinois-based company said in its quarterly earnings statement late yesterday.

That is up 13 percent from a year earlier on a foreign exchange-neutral basis but lagged Groupon's target for 15 percent growth on the same basis in 2015. It also fell short of an average analyst estimate of $856.14 million.

It also forecast earnings of zero to $0.02 for the first quarter a weak outlook compared with an average outlook for $0.02 according to Thomson Reuters.

For the October-to-December quarter the company reported earnings excluding one-time items of $0.06 per share surpassing the $0.03 that Wall Street had expected on average.

Revenue was up 20 percent at $925.4 million also topping market expectations of $908 million.

Active customers or customers that have purchased a voucher or product within the past 12 months rose to 53.9 million from 44.9 million a year earlier and 52.7 million during the third quarter.

Gross billings climbed 31 percent to $2.1 billion. Excluding negative currency fluctuations the growth was 36 percent.

“2014 was a transformational year for Groupon as we made significant progress in our strategy to become the world’s leading local commerce destination” said Eric Lefkofsky CEO of Groupon in the statement.

“Global billings hit their highest level ever in the quarter growing more than 30% driven in part by our reignited North America Local business. We now turn our attention to further building out our marketplace to ensure that our more than 260 million subscribers have an amazing experience every time they use Groupon.”

Groupon has diversified from a company pushing daily deals through email to a broader e-commerce player with longer-term offers local listings and the sale of physical goods.

The company last year released several new products including a tablet-based checkout register for small businesses a listings service that competes with Yelp Inc. and a service for cash back for buying certain groceries.

Shares fell as much as 0.5 percent in New York premarket. The stock closed down 1.6 percent at $7.46 yesterday expanding losses over the past twelve months to 31 percent.

Also yesterday the online commerce company confirmed that several parties have expressed interest in acquiring its South Korean subsidiary Ticket Monster.

Groupon said it was too early to comment on the likelihood of such a deal though it continues to explore alternatives for its various Asian businesses.

Groupon bought Ticket Monster from rival LivingSocial Inc about a year ago for $260 million.