Groupon Sales Growth Anemic as Operating Income Slides

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By Jon C. Ogg Updated Published
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Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) is not a company we consider as systemically important, but it is widely tracked by many investors and consumers. The online couponing social media company has reported earnings of $0.02 per share before options and other items and its sales were up by 5% to $595.1 million. Thomson Reuters was projection consensus estimates of $0.01 in earnings per share on sales of $615.7 million.

Gross billings were $1.34 billion for a gain of 10%. North America growth of 20% and EMEA growth of 12% was offset by a 13% decline in Rest of World.

North America revenue growth of 24% was offset by a 21% drop in EMEA and a 4% decline in the areas considered as the rest of world. Gross profit was $359.6 million in the third quarter versus $386.8 million a year ago.

The company pointed to strength in local businesses and said that mobile adoption continued to increase. It reached a record 9 million app downloads and is still looking to transform itself from its daily deal email roots to a full ecommerce marketplace. Groupon also announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Ticket Monster as a ecommerce company in Korea.

What is going to be a concern here is that Groupon’s operating income was $13.8 million in the third quarter, and that is lower than the $25.4 million in the same period a year ago. Another issue is that the operating income was down by $13.6 million when compared to second quarter 2013.

Groupon shares closed down 5% at $9.50 and the stock is down another 8.8% to $8.45 in the after-hours reaction. Groupon’s shares have traded in a range of $2.60 to $12.76 in the last 52-weeks.

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About the Author Jon C. Ogg →

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. a673b.bigscoots-temp.com.

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