Groupon Brings Big Growth and Over 50% Mobile Transactions

Retail

Published: May 6, 2014 4:15 pm

Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) has reported its first quarter earnings for 2014. The daily deals and discounts reported earnings of -$0.01 per share, and revenue was $757.6 million. Thomson Reuters was expecting a net loss of $0.03 per share, down from a profit of $0.03 per share a year ago. Revenue was expected to be up almost 23% to $738.4 million.

Gross billings of $1.82 billion were a record, up 29%. North America billings increased 15%, EMEA increased 4% and Rest of World increased 123%, driven by the acquisition of Ticket Monster. North America revenue increased 27%, EMEA increased 26% and Rest of World increased 23%. Groupon even reported that it had more than 10 million app downloads this quarter and mobile transactions reached 54% in March.

During the first quarter 2014, Groupon repurchased 3,075,700 shares of common stock at an average price of $9.58 per share for a total of $29.5 million. Under the existing authorization, Groupon has repurchased a total of 7,508,500 shares at an average price of $10.13 per share for a total of $76.0 million. Groupon showed that it is authorized to repurchase up to an additional $224.0 million worth of shares. At the end of the quarter, Groupon had $1.0 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

In the second quarter 2014, Groupon now expects a continued investment to accelerate long-term growth worldwide – putting revenue of between $725 million and $775 million, Adjusted EBITDA of between $45 million and $65 million, and non-GAAP earnings per share excluding items of between $0.00 and $0.02. For the coming quarter, the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates are $0.03 earnings per share and $754.4 million in revenue. Groupon also raised its full year outlook, and now expects Adjusted EBITDA to exceed $300 million.

Groupon shares closed down 2.5% at $6.72 on Tuesday and its 52-week range is $5.37 to $12.76. Shares were indicated higher and lower since the closing bell in the first few minutes, so we will provide an update when the dust settles.

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