Earnings Results: Tripadvisor CEO to depart next year; stock drops after earnings

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Shares of Tripadvisor Inc. were off 9% in after-hours trading Monday after the company posted weaker-than-expected results and also announced that its chief executive plans to leave his post next year.

The company saw third-quarter revenue double to $303 million from $151 million a year earlier, while analysts tracked by FactSet had been expecting $307.3 million.

“We are very excited about the progress we are making in our key initiatives with a focus on the long-term, even as we remain cautiously optimistic about near-term travel trends,” Chief Executive Steve Kaufer said in a release.

Tripadvisor
TRIP,
-0.49%

generated net income of $23 million, or 1 cent a share, reversing course from a loss of $23 million, or 36 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. On an adjusted basis, Tripadvisor earned 16 cents a share, whereas it posted a 17-cent adjusted loss per share in the year-prior period. Analysts tracked by FactSet were modeling 24 cents a share in adjusted earnings.

“[A]fter BKNG and EXPE posted sizable beats, which boosted Trip’s stock,” the latest results from Tripadvisor “will disappoint,” wrote Bernstein analyst Richard Clarke.

Read: Vrbo pushes Expedia to a profit, stock jumps

The company also announced Monday that Kaufer plans to depart from his role in 2022 but will remain in the position until Tripadvisor names a successor after a review of external and internal candidates. Kaufer is a co-founder of Tripadvisor, having launched the company in 2000.

The news of Kaufer’s plans to step down “is a surprise, but new management will ultimately likely be welcomed,” Clarke wrote.

Shares of Tripadvisor are down 6.4% over the past three months as the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.09%

SPX,
+0.09%

has added 6.0%.