Online car-shopping service TrueCar (TRUE 2.03%) reported second-quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday, August 6. Here's what you need to know.
The key facts
For the quarter ended June 30, TrueCar's net loss was $14.7 million, or $0.18 per share, a slight improvement from the $15.0 million loss in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 31%, to $65.3 million.
In a conference call on July 24, TrueCar warned that its second-quarter results would fall well short of Wall Street expectations. At the time, the company said that its second-quarter revenue would fall between $65.0 million and $65.3 million, and its net loss would come in between $15.0 million and $15.5 million. Before that July 24 call, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected revenue of $68 million and a net profit of $2.2 million.
The earnings miss appears to have cost TrueCar's founder his job: CEO Scott Painter said that he will leave the company by the end of 2015.
There was some decent news behind the bottom-line miss
Despite the grim warning last month, some of Thursday's news was decent:
- $60.4 million of TrueCar's $65.3 million in revenue came from transactions, as opposed to the company's consulting and forecasting businesses. Both of those revenue numbers are records.
- TrueCar's users bought just more than 190,000 vehicles from dealers using the service, up 27% year over year.
- "Monetization" -- the company's term for its average transaction revenue per unit sold -- rose to $317 from $308 a year ago. But it was down from $322 in the first quarter of 2015.
- Market share rose to 4%, up 19% from the second quarter of last year.
- Sales through TrueCar's "branded channel" rose 46% year over year.
- TrueCar now has 9,300 dealers in its network, up 21% year over year.
The company's "adjusted EBIDTA margin," its key measure of profitability, fell to just 0.7% from 7.3% in the first quarter, as several hoped-for deals failed to close, and sales and marketing expenses surged. As a result of those misses, TrueCar's founder will soon be out of a job.
Reset guidance, and a big change in leadership
During that July 24 call, TrueCar CEO Scott Painter blamed "execution challenges" for the company's significant second-quarter shortfall. Wall Street wasn't amused: The company's stock dropped nearly 40% the next day. As of Thursday's close, it hadn't recovered.
Apparently, TrueCar's board of directors wasn't amused by the big earnings miss, either. Painter said on Thursday that he will step down as CEO as soon as a successor is found, before the end of the year. He will continue to serve as chairman of TrueCar's board, but the search for his successor will be led by an independent director.
TrueCar also issued new guidance. For the third quarter, TrueCar now expects revenue of $65.0 to $67.0 million on sales of 190,000 to 195,000 units. For the full year, it now expects revenue to fall between $252.0 million and $258.0 million on sales of 730,000 to 740,000 units.
"We have reset our guidance," Guthrie said on Thursday. "The team is working diligently to drive operational improvements that will yield both revenue growth and, more importantly, a return to expanding adjusted EBITDA margins," he said.
