Online Review Firm Yelp Sees 13% Hike in Net Revenue for Q2

Yelp Inc. has delivered a record-breaking performance for its second quarter results released Thursday (Aug. 3).

According to their earnings report, the online business reviews company saw their net revenue increase by 13% year over year in the second quarter to reach a high of $337 million. It was $7 million more than the company’s second-quarter outlook range and was propelled mostly by advertising revenue growth in the quarter ending June 30.

In the earnings call with analysts, Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said that “Yelp’s record-breaking top-line second quarter results are a testament to our increased product velocity and consistent execution across the company. For the ninth consecutive quarter, we delivered double-digit growth and achieved a new high in net revenue driven by record advertising revenue across categories. Self-serve and multi-location also accounted for more than half of our advertising revenue for the first time.”

David Schwarzbach, Yelp’s chief financial officer, added that the results demonstrate the healthy profitability they have achieved with their revenue growth: “Yelp’s second quarter results demonstrate the durability of our top-line growth while delivering healthy profitability. We repurchased $50 million worth of shares at an average purchase price of $31.98 and now expect further net revenue to be in the range of $337 million to $342 million in the third quarter. For the full year, we now expect net revenue to be in the range of [$1.32 billion] to [$1.33 billion].”

Further exploring the results, Zacks Investment Research reported that Yelp came out with quarterly earnings of $0.21 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.15 per share.

Looking ahead

In Yelp’s shareholder letter, the company said it plans a nationwide rollout of Yelp Guaranteed, a consumer satisfaction program that debuted in April for home services businesses. The company said it has “driven increases in project submissions and ad clicks for businesses that adopted the product, giving us confidence to complete the nationwide rollout this week.”

Shares of Yelp were up 7.81% in after-hour trading, selling at $46.50 a share.