What: Shares of Bankrate (RATE) closed Wednesday up 13.7% after the company announced better-than-expected second-quarter results.
So what: Quarterly revenue rose 1.9% year over year to $132.9 million, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased 10% to $35.8 million -- both were company records for the period. That translated to 8.8% growth in adjusted net income to $16.8 million, or $0.16 per share. Analysts, on average, were anticipating roughly the same earnings, but on lower revenue of $126.7 million.
"As Bankrate reaches the $150 million adjusted EBITDA milestone over the past twelve months," added CEO Kenneth Esterow, "we are particularly pleased with the continued strength in our marquee Credit Card franchise, as well as terrific progress in scaling our senior care vertical toward profitability."
To be sure, Bankrate's top-line growth was driven by a 1.8% increase in its Credit Card segment to $56.1 million, as well as $5.9 million from its "Other" segment, which includes revenue from its $54 million acquisition of Caring.com in May, 2014. Meanwhile, revenue from Bankrate's Insurance business fell 3.2% year over year to $43.9 million, and Banking sales dropped 7.4% to $27 million.
Now what: For the current quarter, Bankrate expects revenue between $125 million and $130 million, and adjusted EBITDA of between $33 million and $35 million. By contrast, consensus estimates called for higher third-quarter revenue of $131.4 million, and earnings of $0.18 per share.
Investors were much more pleased with Bankrate's full-year guidance. For 2015, the company now expects revenue to be in the range of $525 million to $531 million -- up from previous guidance for $520 million to $530 million -- and reiterated its adjusted EBITDA outlook of between $145 million and $150 million. Wall Street was modeling revenue near the low end of that range at $526.3 million, and earnings of $0.70 per share.
All things considered, this was a solid report from Bankrate relative to expectations, and I can't blame the market for bidding shares up today. Given its stagnant growth overall, however, as well as the continued declines of its insurance and banking businesses, I'm not particularly anxious to step in myself. For now, until Bankrate can demonstrate more broad-based strength, I'm content watching its progress from the sidelines.
