By Jeremy C. Owens
Compass Inc. shares plummeted in after-hours trading Monday, after the real-estate brokerage and tech provider slashed its annual revenue guidance and revealed plans to cut costs due to a downturn in the housing market.
Compass /zigman2/quotes/210598365/realtime COMP -0.23% executives reduced their annual sales forecast by roughly $1.5 billion, with the current forecast calling for revenue of $6.15 billion to $6.45 billion after the previous guidance stated $7.6 billion to $8 billion. Executives also said they expect to seek $320 million in annually recurring costs for impending cuts.
“Given the challenges the real-estate market has faced so far this year and the likelihood that this difficult environment will continue for the foreseeable future, we are announcing a significant cost-reduction program,” Chief Executive Robert Reffkin said in a statement. “We have line of sight into each area that will drive these savings to our expenses, which we believe will enable us to be free-cash-flow positive in 2023. We expect to complete all targeted cost reductions by the end of this calendar year.”
Compass stock plunged 11% in after-hours trading immediately following the release of the results. Shares have already declined 48.5% so far this year, as the S&P 500 index /zigman2/quotes/210599714/realtime SPX +0.38% has dropped 10.2%.
For the second quarter, Compass reported a net loss of $101.2 million, or 24 cents a share, up from a loss of 2 cents a share a year ago. Revenue increased to $2.02 billion from $1.95 billion a year ago, but missed expectations. Analysts on average were projecting a loss of 17 cents a share on sales of $2.11 billion, according to FactSet.
For the third quarter, Compass executives’ forecast was way off from Wall Street’s expectations. Executives expect an adjusted-Ebitda loss of $65 million to $80 million on revenue of $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion, while analysts on average were modeling positive adjusted Ebitda of $45 million and revenue of $2.11 billion, according to FactSet.
Compass executives planned a conference call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern to further discuss the results.
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