Shutterstock Q1 Adj. Profit Meets View, Revenues Beat; Lifts 2014 Outlook

(RTTNews) - Shutterstock Inc. (SSTK), a provider of commercial digital imagery, on Thursday reported a 12 percent decline in profit for the first quarter from last year as higher revenues were more than offset by an increase in expenses.

However, revenue for the quarter beat analysts' expectations and adjusted earnings matched their estimates. Looking ahead, the company forecast revenue for the second quarter above Street expectations and raised its revenue outlook for fiscal 2014.

Jon Oringer, Founder and CEO of Shutterstock said, "We had a very strong first quarter, with consistent growth across all regions worldwide. Our core markets and product offerings performed very well, while more recently introduced revenue streams from Enterprise sales and video footage licensing doubled as compared to the prior year."

Net income available to the company's common shareholders for the first quarter declined to $4.91 million or $0.14 per share from $5.55 million or $0.16 per share last year.

Excluding the after-tax impact of non-cash equity-based compensation, adjusted earnings for the latest quarter were $7.13 million or $0.20 per share, compared to $6.13 million or $0.18 per share in the prior-year period. On average, eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.20 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues for the quarter grew 42 percent to $72.78 million from $51.12 million in the prior-year period. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $69.72 million for the quarter.

Total operating expenses rose 55 percent from last year to $63.68 million.

Quarterly paid image downloads rose 33 percent from the year-ago period to 29.7 million, while revenue per download increased 7 percent to $2.45. At the end of the first quarter, the company's collection was 35.4 million images, up 41 percent from 25.1 million in the same period of the prior year.

Looking ahead to the second quarter, Shutterstock forecasts revenues of $76 million to $78 million, while analysts currently expect revenues of $74.41 million.

For fiscal year 2014, the company raised its outlook for revenues to a range of $315 million to $320 million from the prior range of $305 million to $310 million. Analysts currently estimate revenues of $309.91 million for the year.

SSTK closed Thursday's regular trading session at $68.04, down $0.25 or 0.37 percent on a volume of 412,080 shares. In after-hours, the stock further declined $5.93 or 8.72 percent to $62.11.