Despite continuing to see erosion in its North American business, Monster beat Wall Street’s financial expectations for the 2nd quarter. Its stock price jumped almost 10% on the news.
The company reported earning 10 cents a share on total revenue of $180.4 million. Analysts were forecasting 8 cents after excluding certain expenses. Including those expenses, Monster posted a $1 million loss, versus breaking even a year ago.
“Our quarterly results exceeded our expectations as we continue to execute our transformative strategy while improving profitability,” said Tim Yates, president and CEO. “We are increasingly confident that our family of new strategic products are additive to our traditional core products and provide a superior competitive solution for our customers.”
North American revenue was $119.84 million for the 2nd quarter, a decline of 5% over 2014. Overseas revenue posted an 11.3% decline. However, when adjusted for fluctuations in currency rates, the company said it showed a 3% increase over last year.
Monster expects 3rd quarter per share earnings in the range of 9 cents to 13 cents. Analysts are forecasting 9 cents on revenue of $182.6 million.
Since opening the year at $4.63 a share, Monster’s stock price has risen 43% as of midday in New York. Its current midday price of $6.62 is right where it was last year after the company reported its 2nd quarter results.
After failing to find a buyer for itself, Monster embarked on an ambitious “three pillars” strategy, which it unveiled in May last year. The strategy included aggregating jobs from all online sources, putting Monster in direct competition with industry leader Indeed.com and other aggregators. Another component was to introduce a pricing program to attract small employers.
Zacks, an investment research firm, says Monster’s efforts have had some success, but soft global employment, competition and recruiters shift away from job boards to social media, and in particular to LinkedIn, have slowed the company’s progress.
LinkedIn will report its 2nd quarter financial results this afternoon.