AUSTIN, Texas, April 23, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - HomeAway, Inc. (Nasdaq:AWAY), the world's leading online marketplace for the vacation rental industry, today reported its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015.
Management Commentary
"HomeAway achieved big steps forward on several important priorities during the first quarter, including the launch of our global marketing campaign and a surge in online booking adoption. Today we announced some leadership changes and we're taking this opportunity to realign our leadership team to position the company for the next stage of HomeAway's growth," says Brian Sharples, chief executive officer of HomeAway®.
Mr. Sharples continued "Overall we were pleased with our Q1 results despite continued foreign exchange headwinds and some weakness in our European subscription business. The early indications from our marketing campaign were positive and I'm thrilled that we're back in the marketing game in a significant way. We had a blockbuster quarter for our online booking initiative, with 465,000 listings now online bookable due to both the popularity of the PPB product and a record number of subscribers adopting this feature. Our aggressive push into ecommerce and online booking is on track to achieve our goal of making nearly all our listings online bookable by the end of 2016."
First Quarter 2015 Financial Highlights
• Total revenue increased 12.6% to $119.0 million from $105.7 million in the first quarter of 2014. On an FX neutral basis, year-over-year revenue growth was 20.6%. Growth in total revenue primarily reflected an increase in listings, an increase in average revenue per subscription listing as a result of tiered pricing and bundled product offerings, and the benefit of ancillary product and services revenue.
• Listing revenue increased 8.7% to $95.0 million from $87.3 million in the first quarter of 2014. On an FX neutral basis, year-over-year listing revenue growth was 17.9%.
• Other revenue, which is comprised of ancillary revenue from owners, managers, and travelers, advertising, software and other items, increased 31.1% to $24.1 million from $18.4 million in the first quarter of 2014. Growth in other revenue primarily reflected increased adoption of value-added owner, manager and traveler products.
• Net loss attributable to HomeAway was $(2.1) million, or $(0.02) per diluted share, compared to net income attributable to HomeAwayof $4.4 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2014. Net income for the first quarter of 2015 was impacted by tax expense of $3.6 million, which was higher than pre-tax net income due to the mix of pre-tax income and losses in various jurisdictions.
• Adjusted EBITDA decreased 3.4% to $25.3 million from $26.2 million in the first quarter of 2014. As a percentage of revenue, adjusted EBITDA was 21.2% compared to 24.8% in the first quarter of 2014. This change reflects a significant increase in investment in our global integrated marketing campaign, which launched in the first quarter of 2015.
• Free cash flow increased 16.8% to $45.3 million from $38.7 million in the first quarter of 2014. On a trailing twelve month basis, free cash flow increased 25.6% to $123.6 million from $98.4 million in the comparable trailing twelve month period for the prior year.
• Non-GAAP net income was $10.6 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $13.2 million, or $0.14 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2014.
Key Business Metrics
• Paid listings at the end of the first quarter of 2015 were approximately 1,086,000, a year-over-year increase of 14.1% from approximately 952,000 at the end of the first quarter of 2014. At the end of the first quarter, 724,000 of the listings were subscription listings and 362,000 were performance-based listings. We have phased out our legacy pay-per-lead product and removed certain pay-per lead listings from our sites. Absent this change, listing growth was approximately 16% in the first quarter of 2015.
• Average revenue per subscription listing during the first quarter of 2015 was $472, an FX neutral increase of 15.7% compared to the prior year.
• Renewal rate was 71.6% at the end of the first quarter of 2015, compared to 73.1% at the end of the first quarter of 2014 and 71.7% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2014. Adjusting for the impact of consolidated listings and network bundles, renewal rate for the first quarter of 2015 would have been 72.4%, compared to 74.9% at the end of the first quarter of 2014 and 72.6% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2014.
• Visits were 287.0 million during the first quarter, a year-over-year increase of 17.1%.
Business Outlook
HomeAway management currently expects to achieve the following results for the second quarter ending June 30, 2015 and full year endingDecember 31, 2015:
Second Quarter 2015
• Total revenue is expected to be in the range of $122.0 to $124.0 million, representing year-over-year growth of approximately 7% to 9% (FX neutral growth of approximately 18% to 20%).
• Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $22.5 to $23.5 million, or approximately 18.4% to 19.0% of revenue.
Full Year 2015
• Total revenue is expected to be in the range of $493 to $500 million, representing year-over-year growth of approximately 10% to 12% (FX neutral growth of approximately 19% to 21%).
• Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $119 to $123 million, or approximately 24.1% to 24.6% of revenue.
