Companies continue to flock to LivePerson (Nasdaq: LPSN ) as a way to provide instant and cost-efficient support to its website users.
The company behind the popular proactive live chat platform posted solid quarterly results last night. Revenue climbed 20% to $30.4 million. Adjusted earnings climbed to $0.09 a share. Analysts figured that LivePerson's tweaked profitability would be flat with the $0.07 a share it posted a year earlier.
LivePerson added 12 new enterprise and midmarket clients during the period, expanding its business with several existing accounts along the way. This is the company's flagship business, growing by 22% over the past year.
The balance of LivePerson's revenue comes from its consumer-facing operations. It may sound hokey to connect info seekers with psychics, computer programmers, debt counselors, and any of the site's 30,000 experts of varying pedigrees that are paid by the minute, but this slower growing niche accounts for just 12% of the revenue mix.
LivePerson's bread and butter will continue to be helping e-tailers guide frazzled shoppers just before they abandon their virtual shopping carts and active customers of all businesses in need of immediate support.
The dot-com darling is sticking to its full-year guidance, calling for adjusted net income of $0.33 a share to $0.36 a share on 21% to 24% in top-line growth. Disappointed there? You should be. LivePerson clocked in ahead of Wall Street and its own initial bottom-line guidance during the first quarter. Failing to bump its range slightly higher to match the beat suggests that the final nine months of the year won't be as rosy as it initially expected. It's a minor quibble, but the same thing happened on a larger scale to robotics specialist iRobot last week. LivePerson's stock hit a new all-time high last month, so a breather is only natural today.
LivePerson should bounce back. It's in demand, and I'm not just talking about its services.
When Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL ) snapped up Art Technology Group last year, it drew investors to LivePerson, GSI Commerce (Nasdaq: GSIC ) , NetScout (Nasdaq: NTCT ) , and other enterprise specialists that help enhance a website's effectiveness. It paid off. GSI got scooped up in a roughly $2.4 billion deal by eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY ) two months ago. LivePerson's booming enterprise appeal makes it one of the more eligible bachelorettes still unhitched.
I recommended LivePerson to Rule Breakers subscribers at $6.73 last year, and the stock has gone on to nearly double. Between its strong flagship business and the added sizzle of buyout appeal, LivePerson should continue to be a winner. And, no, you don't need to contact a spiritualist or a psychic on LivePerson.com to know that much.
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