Following the bell today, Yelp reported a strong second quarter 2016 financial performance that made the stock soar almost 11 percent in after-hours trading. Yelp’s earnings release included better-than-expected revenue of $173.4 million and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.16.
As part of the earnings release, Yelp made two additional announcements.
First, the company said it partnered with and made an investment in Nowait, a mobile platform that allows restaurants to manage their waitlists.
“In the coming months, Nowait will be integrated onto Yelp Platform, allowing consumers to conveniently view wait times at thousands of restaurants and even add themselves to the waitlists remotely via the Yelp app,” Yelp said in a statement.
The company also announced that Jed Nachman has been appointed chief operating officer, effective today. An expert in sales, Nachman became chief revenue officer this year after having joined Yelp in 2007. Former COO Geoff Donaker will continue as a strategic advisor to the company.
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For the second quarter ended June 30, the company beat analyst’s expectations by a mile. Analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance expected the San Francisco-based company to post a loss of $0.07 EPS, off revenue of $169.8 million. Instead, Yelp delivered a strong quarter. Profit was $449,000, compared to a loss of $1.3 million in the year-ago quarter. Even GAAP earnings came in positive at $0.01.
“In the second half of the year, we look to execute against our three strategic priorities of growing the core local advertising business, boosting awareness of Yelp and driving transactions,” Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
According to Sensor Tower, the Yelp app was downloaded 800,000 times in July 2016.
In New York Stock Exchange trading today, the company closed up 96 cents, or up 3.03 percent, at $32.64. About one hour after the announcement, the stock was up 10.29 percent, or $3.36, at $36.00.