WebMD (WBMD) Stock Pops in After-Hours Trading on Q1 Beat
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- WebMD Health (WBMD) stock is jumping by 4.72% to $65 in after-hours trading on Wednesday, after the New York-based company reported better-than-expected results for the 2016 first quarter.
After today's market close, the provider of health information services posted earnings of 36 cents per diluted share, topping analysts' estimates of 33 cents per share.
Revenue rose by 11% to $158.6 million year-over-year and was above Wall Street's projections of $156.6 million.
"WebMD continues to attract larger, higher-quality and more deeply engaged audiences than any of our competitors. Our strong first quarter results reflect our market leadership and position as a key digital partner to leading health advertisers," CEO David Schlanger said in a statement.
Traffic to the WebMD Health Network during the period hit an average of 210.8 million unique users per month and generated 4.4 billion page views for the quarter. This is an increase of 1% and 4% respectively, the company said.
In 2016, the company sees earnings per share in the range of $1.81 and $1.93 on revenue of $695 million to $708 million.
Analysts are looking for earnings of $1.80 per share on revenue of $697.4 million.
For the second quarter, WebMD forecasts revenue between $163 million and $166 million, in line with analysts' expectations of $162.4 million.
Separately, TheStreet Ratings Team has a "Buy" rating with a score of A- on the stock.
The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income, revenue growth and expanding profit margins.
The team believes its strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow.
Recently, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.
You can view the full analysis from the report here: WBMD
