Well, it wasn't pretty. But on the bright side, it wasn't all that unexpected, either.
Friday morning, online discount retailer Overstock.com (Nasdaq: OSTK) reported revenues of $169.3 million, representing 64% growth, in the third quarter. While better than the $160.3 million analyst estimate, that figure still represents a disappointment in the company's overall growth story and is related to the botched execution of a major IT infrastructure upgrade that caused a five-week delay in the upload of new merchandise.
Gross margins were up to 14.6% from 13.3% in last year's Q3, but they were down sequentially from 14.7% in the second quarter. And while gross profits grew 80% to $24.8 million, non-tech general and administrative expenses climbed 96%, and technology expenses jumped 257% because of IT projects. At the same time, the customer acquisition cost rose 25% to $22.92 from $18.30 last year, and up from $22.10 in the second quarter.
On the bright side, the gross profit per transaction was up 19% year over year to $13.88, though roughly flat with the second quarter.
Overall, the company posted an operating loss of $11.2 million and showed a net loss (going by generally accepted accounting principles) of $14.2 million, or $0.75 per share. That loss compares poorly with the analyst expectation for a loss of $0.51 per share, and it's also significantly wider than last year's $0.16-per-share loss.
But after all of that, the stock was up 2% in early Friday afternoon trading. I think that has a lot to do with this stock having already been whacked by more than 50% off its 52-week high -- thanks in part to its having been overvalued at its high, in part to the distractions related to the lawsuit and conspiracy theories, and in part to execution problems -- so the stock was already out of favor. In addition, disappointing results from Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and an unimpressive report from eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) also drove down the stock a bit over the past week or so.
Earlier this week, the company announced that President Patrick Byrne's father, former GEICO and White Mountains (NYSE: WTM) chief and insurance industry legend Jack Byrne, has replaced Patrick as chairman. The company also added Ray Groves -- retired chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young -- and former Overstock President and CFO Jason Lindsay to the board of directors. Things aren't looking pretty at Overstock, but maybe the new team can help put things back on track. Stay tuned.
For more on Overstock.com, check out:
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Fool contributor Jeff Hwang owns shares of Overstock.com and eBay. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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