Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX) reported Q4 EPS of ($0.01), versus ($0.01) reported last year. Revenue for the quarter came in at $28.59 million versus the consensus estimate of $25.99 million.

Q4 and Full Year 2019 Financial Highlights

• Revenue was $28.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2019, compared to $23.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2018. Revenue was $106.1 million for 2019, compared to $85.3 million for 2018.
• Core analytics and solutions revenue was $12.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2019, compared to $10.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2018. Core analytics and solutions revenue was $52.3 million for 2019, compared to $35.4 million for 2018.
• Net loss was $0.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2019 or $0.01 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $0.6 million or $0.01 per diluted share for the fourth quarter of 2018. Net loss was $4.0 million for 2019 or $0.09 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $2.7 million or $0.06 per diluted share for 2018.

“In 2019, we made considerable progress in expanding our market opportunity through innovating with products, leveraging strategic initiatives and evolving our infrastructure to solve mission critical problems for our customers across the fastest growing mobile communication channels,” said Mike Arends, Chief Financial Officer. “During 2020, we will continue investing to expand our conversational analytics and sales acceleration solutions and leverage our growing artificial intelligence and data science capabilities to empower businesses with unique end-to-end solutions that drive more sales, create better customer experiences and provide a complete view of the customer journey. We believe these initiatives will be the foundation for Marchex’s long-term growth and leadership in conversational analytics and sales acceleration solutions.”

GUIDANCE:

Marchex sees Q1 2020 revenue of $25 million, versus the consensus of $26.7 million.

The following forward-looking statements reflect Marchex's expectations as of February 12, 2020.

• For the first quarter of 2020, the Company anticipates core analytics and solutions revenue to be in the range of $12.8 million, representing growth from the prior year comparative quarter and from the fourth quarter of 2019.
• In the first quarter of 2020, the Company anticipates seeing stabilization or potentially a modest increase in revenue related to Marchex’s marketplace products on a year-over-year basis, excluding the decline of the legacy Local Leads product.

“For 2020, as our sales, product and OEM partner initiatives ramp, we anticipate that growth in our auto vertical may accelerate later in the year. We are making a series of strategic investments that we believe will drive Marchex’s growth and long-term operating profile in 2021 and beyond”, said Arends.

Strategic Investments for 2020:

• Additional sales and marketing investments, particularly in the first part of the year, as the Company accelerates its initiatives and personnel additions to capture the increasing opportunity it is seeing for its conversational analytics products and sales acceleration solutions.
• $2 million in addressing various infrastructure initiatives, including consolidating infrastructure and data centers during 2020. Through these initiatives, the Company anticipates that it can achieve more than $1 million in annualized cost savings beginning in 2021 and beyond.
• Up to $2.5 million investment in a private auto services company. The Company expects to include the activity and expenses from this investment in its results of operations.

“Our majority investment in a private auto services company is independent from our existing auto analytics product focus, but represents an opportunity that can benefit from our technology investments and relationships within the auto vertical over time. We believe this investment can help broaden our overall strategy, deepen our industry coverage, and leverage our technology investments,” said Arends. “We also anticipate we will maintain our profitability profile in 2020 and make profitability progress excluding the investment in the auto services company.”

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Marchex (MCHX) click here.