Cars and Drivers

TrueCar Stuns Investors With Weak Guidance and Earnings

Chris Lange

Published: February 19, 2016 8:40 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 1:00 pm

TrueCar Inc. (NASDAQ: TRUE) reported its fourth quarter financial results after the markets closed on Thursday. The company had a net loss of $0.06 per share on $63.6 million in revenue, which compares to consensus estimates that called for a net loss of $0.04 per shares on revenue of $64.8 million. In the same period of the previous year, The company reported no earnings and $55.5 million in revenue.

Over the course of 2015, a record 750,108 cars and light trucks were sold to TrueCar users by TrueCar Certified Dealers, up 23% from last year. The TrueCar Certified Dealer network included over 11,000 dealers at the end of the year, including 9,094 franchise dealers.

Average monthly unique visitors totaled 5.9 million in the fourth quarter, an increase from 4.4 million in the same period from last year.

In terms of guidance, the company expects first-quarter revenue to be in the range of $60 million to $62 million and for adjusted EBITDA to breakeven. There are consensus estimates of $0.01 in EPS on $69.18 million in revenue.

Fourth-quarter revenue rose 15 percent from a year ago and the number of vehicles sold to TrueCar users by TrueCar Certified Dealers increased 12 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2014, yet the period was a difficult one and marked the close of a challenging year. We are moving quickly to strengthen our foundation and have made a number of important changes at the senior level of the company, most notably with Chip Perry joining us as Chief Executive Officer in December. We start from a good base and have a plan in place to make the investments necessary in order to excel over the long term.

On the books, cash and cash equivalents totaled $112.4 million at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to $147.5 million in the same period from the previous year.

Shares of TrueCar closed Thursday down 2.2% at $5.77, with a consensus analyst price target of $8.28 and a 52-week trading range of $4.01 to $20.24. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was down roughly 24% at $4.41 in early trading indications Friday.