Yelp Screams Higher on Strong Revenue

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Yelp (AAPL) soared in after-hours following stronger-than-expected second-quarter revenue.

Yelp, which lets users find and review restaurants and other places of interest, reported a loss of 3 cents a share on $32.7 million in revenue, up 67% year-over-year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting a loss of 6 cents per share on $30.53 million in sales. Adjusted EBITDA, which the company believes is a key measure of the business, rose to $1.6 million, up from $649,000 in the second quarter of 2011.

The company noted average monthly unique visitors grew 52% year-over-year to more than 78 million and active local business accounts grew 113% from the year ago period.

"Yelp's second quarter performance highlights the underlying power of our model," said Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman in the company press release. "By focusing almost singularly on cultivating rich, authentic local content, we have created a unique platform that is rapidly becoming the de facto local search engine for connecting consumers with great local businesses."

The company kept its third-quarter revenue forecast, but raised its full-year revenue guidance from its prior forecast. It expects third-quarter sales between $34.5 million and $35.5 million. For the full year, revenue is expected to be between $135 million and $136 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect $34.3 million in sales for the third-quarter and $130.72 million for the full year.

Shares of Yelp fell 5.71% to close at $18.82 in Wednesday trade. Yelp is soaring in after-hours trading, up 14.24% at $21.50, according to Nasdaq.com.

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--Written by Chris Ciaccia in New York