HOTJ - earnings highlights
NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - Internet-based job recruiting company HotJobs.com Inc. (NasdaqNM:HOTJ - news) said on Wednesday its first quarter losses narrowed as its customer-based doubled and the average amount clients spent to advertise jobs on line increased.
The company said it was confident it would cut its second-quarter losses in half and report a profit by the third-quarter as the slowing economy prompts companies to advertise jobs more cheaply on-line than through print media and membership continues to rise.
New York-based HotJobs.com reported a net loss, excluding one-time items, of $6 million, or 16 cents a share, compared with a loss of $12 million, or 38 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenues rose 142 percent to $33.6 million, up from $13.9 million a year earlier, it said in a statement.
A group of six Wall Street analysts estimated the company would report losses ranging between 16 cents to 19 cents a share, with a consensus of 17 cents, according to research firm Thomson Financial/First Call.
The company took a series of charges that totaled 21 cents a share related to a 15 percent staff cut, an acquisition and other items. Including those charges, HotJobs.com reported a loss of $13.6 million, or 37 cents a share, it said.
The company has a conservative forecast for its revenue growth for the year, but cost controls and continued marketing will help it cut its losses in half for the second-quarter, said Dimitri Boylan, acting chief executive in an exclusive interview with Reuters.
He estimates the firm will report a second-quarter loss of 8 cents a share, down from previous guidance of a loss of 14 cents a share. The firm sees second-quarter spending at about $4 million.
HotJobs.com expects to be reporting a 1 cent profit by the third quarter and a 2 cent profit in the fourth quarter. The company had originally anticipated it would not report a profit until the fourth quarter, Boylan said.
Boylan said revenues for the year would grow in the 29 percent to 34 percent range to about $127 million and the loss per share would be in the 20 cent to 22 cent range for the year before special items.
Analysts estimated HotJobs.com would report second quarter consensus loss of 15 cents a share and third quarter consensus loss of 7 cents. Wall street's forecasts for the firm's yearly losses range between 49 cents to 30 cents a share with a consensus of 37 cents a share.
The firm said its corporate membership rose 112 percent to more than 10,600 member companies from a year earlier and grew 16 percent from the end of the fourth quarter.
The growth is partly due to HotJobs.com's aggressive marketing and the slowing economy and companies finding it was cheaper to advertise jobs on-line rather than more pricey print classified advertising, the company said.
``Our existing customers have expanded their use of our system,'' Boylan said. ``Many companies are hiring fewer people than they were last year. But companies are hiring and they need a means to hire. They're deciding on-line is the most cost effective way to hire and if they're going to be hiring, they better be hiring efficiently.''
Shares of HotJobs.com have underperformed the Standard & Poor's 500 index by 50 percent over a 12-month period. The stock ended Wednesday up 3.45 percent, or 18 cents at $5.40. It has traded in a 52-week range of $2.80 to $20.25. |
