Groupon Stock Continues Falling As Investors Question Business Model

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Groupon’s Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) stock continues its downward spiral, dropping 4 percent this morning. It’s now at $2.66 a share, down from Friday’s record closing low at $2.76 a share. The continued downward trend for the stock comes after the daily deals site announced third-quarter losses of $3 million on its $591 million revenue, which was much lower than analysts had predicted for the company.

Groupon Stock Continues Falling As Investors Question Business Model

Analysts are questioning whether there’s a future for online couponing. However, Groupon’s CEO said the business is still able to produce strong growth and that they’re working on becoming an e-commerce marketplace that will offer deals on demand. He said about a third of the site’s deals are from smartphone or mobile users, so there could be a potential for last minute, location-specific deals.

Industry experts say Groupon’s European business is struggling and the company’s profit margins are much lower this year because its cost of revenue has almost tripled after the addition of the new Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) Goods business line. The site also began selling deals that are more expensive than they were in the past. From year to year, the cost of revenue increased from $68 million to $181 million, but revenue grew much more slowly from $430 million to $568 million.

In its outlook for the third quarter, Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) had predicted revenue of at least $580 million, which would be an increase from year to year of at least 35 percent. However, the company missed this guidance and instead reported revenue of $568.6 million. Analysts at several investment firms downgraded the company’s stock as a result of that shortfall.

Groupon’s Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) outlook for the fourth quarter projects revenue to be between $625 and 675 million.

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