Market Hits Dice Over Third-quarter Performance

Dice Holdings, parent company of the tech career site Dice.com, took a big hit today after its third-quarter financial performance missed Wall Street’s expectations on both per share earnings and revenue.

The stock was down 15.6 percent at one point, putting it second among the worst performing securities. Its share price recovered some lost ground to close at $7.52, down 13.72 percent on the day.

The company reported earning 12 cents a share on revenue of $52.62 million. The analyst consensus was for 13 cents on revenue of $52.99 million.

Still, the company which operates several niche career sites in tech, healthcare, energy, and finance, improved revenue 10 percent over the same quarter in 2012. The improvement, CFO John Roberts told analysts during a conference call, was primarily due to acquisitions, including The IT JobBoard in the United Kingdom.

Its flagship site, Dice.com, grew revenue 1 percent. However, continuing softness in the global finance market drove down revenue for the company’s finance sector by $800,000.

The company predicted fourth-quarter revenue of $52.9 million, just slightly more than its third-quarter revenue. For the full year, it expects revenue of $208 million, almost $2 million less than what analysts are predicting.