CHARLOTTE – Tree.com Inc. (TREE) on Thursday reported a loss of $4.5 million in its third quarter.
On a per-share basis, the Charlotte-based company said it had a loss of 34 cents. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 75 cents per share.
The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 69 cents per share.
The mortgage lending service provider posted revenue of $297.5 million in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $291.1 million.
“We are pleased to report another strong quarter as our business continues to rebound toward pre-pandemic revenue levels,” said Doug Lebda, Chairman and CEO of LendingTree. “Our Home segment produced record results in the quarter, and we remain encouraged with the ongoing recovery in our Consumer segment. Despite industry headwinds impacting our insurance partners, we are operating that business from a position of strength, and are well positioned to grow market share as the industry rebounds.”
For the current quarter ending in December, Tree.com said it expects revenue in the range of $255 million to $270 million.
Trent Ziegler, CFO, noted: “The benefit of our diversification was apparent this quarter as strong results in our Home and Consumer segments helped offset headwinds in our Insurance business resulting from reduced partner spend. We view this insurance cycle as transitory and remain optimistic trends will normalize in the first half of next year. Our balance sheet is as strong as ever, providing us flexibility to execute on our capital allocation strategy over the coming quarters.”
