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What's happening?
Shares of TripAdvisor (TRIP 2.19%) dropped 14% early Wednesday after the company announced mixed third quarter results.
Why it's happening
Quarterly revenue jumped 39% year-over-year to $354 million, which resulted in a 9% increase in adjusted net income to $71 million, or $0.48 per share. Analysts were expecting lower revenue of $348.4 million to translate to higher adjusted earnings of $0.60 per share.
TripAdvisor CEO Steve Kaufer explained while their acquisition of tours and attractions reservation specialist Viator "helped accelerate Q3 revenue growth, it was partially offset by lower than expected Click-based revenue growth." To be sure, Click-based advertising climbed 31% year-over-year to $247 million, representing 70% of total third-quarter revenue. As CFO Julie Bradley elaborated on the subsequent conference call, "Given the high flow-through of the click-based business, its impact drops straight to the bottom line."
Further, Bradley said declines in clicks per hotel shopper on their site has been a headwind to their forecast since mid-August and, worse yet, stated those headwinds are expected to continue into the fourth quarter. As a result, TripAdvisor reiterated its full-year total revenue expectation for percentage growth in the "high 20s to low 30s." By comparison, the market was looking for 2014 revenue to increase 31.5%. In the end, while TripAdvisor's fundamentals remain relatively strong, it's hard to blame the market for being upset by the extended weakness of its single largest segment.
