Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Shutterstock Inc (SSTK -0.05%) plunged more than 10% Friday morning, then partially recovered to trade down around 6% after the licensed imagery provider released mixed first-quarter results.
So what: Quarterly revenue grew 42% year over year to $72.8 million, which translated to 10% growth in adjusted income to $7.1 million, or $0.20 per share. Analysts, on average, were looking for slightly higher earnings of $0.21 per share on lower sales of $69.71 million. Meanwhile, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization were $14.2 million, compared to $11.8 million this time last year.
In addition, for the current quarter, Shutterstock sees revenue of $76 million to $78 million, with adjusted EBITDA of $14 million to $15 million. On the revenue front, that's once again above analysts' estimates for sales of $74.46 million.
Finally, for the full year, Shutterstock expects revenue of $315 million to $320 million, compared to estimates that call for 2014 revenue of $310.1 million. Shutterstock also lowered both ends of its adjusted 2014 EBITDA range by $2 million to $66 million to $68 million -- though the revised figures include a $1 million increase in Shutterstock's expectations, offset by a $3 million investment in its recently acquired WebDAM operations.
Now what: Shutterstock's top line is still growing nicely, and its bottom-line shortfall wasn't that significant. But however small the miss, the stock was priced for perfection going into the report, and I think the market was right in taking a step back today. Heck, even after today's plunge, shares still trade around 10 and 83 times last year's sales and earnings, respectively, and 44 times next year's estimated earnings. In the end, I still think Shutterstock is a solid, thriving business over the long term, but investors shouldn't be willing to buy it at any price.
