Groupon's Stock Plummets On Sales Miss

Shares of Groupon fell 10% in premarket trade Wednesday after the company reported a decline in sales, falling well short of Wall Street expectations. The company reported a loss of $24.4 million, or 4 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $49.1 million, or 8 cents a share. Excluding one-time items, Groupon reported non-GAAP earnings of a penny a share, ahead of the one-cent loss analysts on average surveyed by FactSet had been expecting. Revenue for the period fell 3% to $673.6 million from $698.4 million in the year-earlier period, widely missing the consensus view of $722 million. The company added 500,000 new customers in North America, bringing total active customers in North America to 31.6 million, and 48.3 million customers globally. The daily deals site reiterated its full-year gross profit guidance in the range of $1.3 billion and $1.35 billion. As of Tuesday's close, shares of Groupon had been up 14% in the past three months and 18% in the past year. The S&P 500 is up 4% and 16%, respectively. This was Groupon's first sales miss in five quarters.