HomeAway, Inc. President Resigns Following Earnings Miss

AirBnB isn't the only one pitching cheap vacation rentals. Credit: HomeAway via Facebook.

Shares of HomeAwaystock fell 13.99% as of 4:55 p.m. ET Thursday evening, plummeting after reporting a key executive change and worse-than-expected first-quarter results. Here's a closer look at the final totals versus Wall Street's projections:

AWAY Revenue YOY Growth EPS YOY Growth
Consensus estimate $119.47 million 13% $0.13 (7.1%)
Q1 actuals $119.03 million 12.6% $0.11 (21.4%)
DIFFERENCE ($0.44 million) (0.4%) ($0.02) (14.3%)

Sources: S&P Capital IQand HomeAway press release.

HomeAway also announced that President and Chief Operating Officer Brent Bellm is leaving the company to "pursue other opportunities."

Commenting on the results, CEO Brian Sharples said in a press release:

What went right: Vacation rental owners continue to use HomeAway to book stays. Overall, paid listings increased 14.1% year over year, to 1.086 million. Average revenue per subscription listing rose 15.7%, to $472, after accounting for currency impact. Most importantly, cash from operations rose 26.7%, to $50.7 million. HomeAway's growing inventory is helping to fund the business.

What went wrong: While most owners seem happy enough, at least a few are taking their business elsewhere. Renewal rates fell from 74.9% to 72.4% after accounting for the impact of consolidated listings and network bundles. This isn't a great sign, especially with a key executive leaving in the middle of an ongoing transition to performance-based listings that pay out after rental.

What's next:HomeAway projects $122 to $124 million in second-quarter revenue, resulting in $22.5 million to $23.5 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA. Analysts tracked by S&P Capital IQ have the company generating $129.66 million in revenue and $0.17 a share in adjusted profit versus $114.26 million and $0.15 a share in last year's Q2. Longer term, analysts have HomeAway growing earnings by an average of 20.91%annuallyduring the next three to five years.

And in terms of the overall business? Investors should be watching gross margin as the company gets more of its revenue and profit from performance listings. (It was down this time, from 84.9% in last year's first quarter to 84.4% in this year's Q1.)

The article HomeAway, Inc. President Resigns Following Earnings Miss originally appeared on Fool.com.

Tim Beyerscould use another vacation, thanks. He's also a member of theMotley Fool Rule Breakersstock-picking team and theMotley Fool SupernovaOdyssey I mission. He didn't own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this article at the time of publication. Check out Tim'sweb homeandportfolio holdingsor connect with him onGoogle+,Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by@milehighfool.The Motley Fool recommends Facebook and HomeAway. The Motley Fool owns shares of Facebook. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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