Monster this morning reported per share earnings that again beat Wall Street expectations, though its revenue for the first quarter of the year fell short of analysts’ forecasts.
The company earned 8 cents a share, after accounting for stock based compensation and restructuring costs. Without those one-time costs, earnings were 9 cents per share. Revenue came to $183.7 million; Wall Street wanted $187.1 million.
Global currency exchange rates took a toll on Monster’s overseas operations, costing it a 13 percent decline in international revenue. Even adjusting for the difference in exchange rates from Q1 of 2014, Monster’s international revenue was off 1 percent. North America also was down, declining 4 from the same quarter last year. Bookings, though, were up 6 percent in North America. Bookings are signed contracts.
These are the data points. What they suggest for the future is harder to read. The company said it expected to earn between 7 and 11 cents per share in the current quarter. Analysts forecast 8 cents.
However, the financial reports from the three public recruitment publishers — Dice, LinkedIn, and Monster — hint at some softening of the global employment market. LinkedIn got hammered by investors last week after significantly reducing its revenue forecast. Dice (now DHI Group) also took a stock price hit after it, too, said future revenue would be lower than what analysts’ predicted.
CareeerBuilder, privately held by a group of newspaper and media companies lead by Gannett, voluntarily reported global revenue of $175 million, which it said was 4.8 percent higher than the same quarter last year. However, because of changes during the last year in what and how the company discloses, comparisons are difficult to make. Still, on a sequential basis, its Q1 revenue is off by $6 million from the last quarter of 2014.