LightInTheBox Q3 Loss Misses Estimates

(RTTNews) - LightInTheBox Holding Co., Ltd. (LITB), an online retail company, Tuesday reported a wider loss for the third quarter as higher operating costs overshadowed the growth in revenue. Loss also missed analysts' estimates.

The Beijing-based company posted net loss of $2.43 million for the current quarter, compared with the loss of $1.68 million a year earlier. However, loss per share narrowed to $0.02 from $0.05 a year ago. The number of outstanding shares at the end of the period was 98,928,846 compared with 34,986,784 a year earlier.

Total operating expenses increased to $32.97 million from $21.98 million a year ago. Also, the cost of goods sold rose to $38.23 million from $29.45 million a year ago.

Excluding certain items, loss of the company was $1.89 million, wider than the loss of $929,000 a year ago. Adjusted loss per share was $0.02 for the current quarter and $0.03 a year ago. Three analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated the company's profit to be $0.05 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Third quarter revenues rose to $68.1 million from $51.1 million a year ago. Street view for revenue was $69.97 million. The company said that the number of customers increased by 74.7 percent to 1.3 million and the number of orders increased by 80 percent over the same period last year.

For the next quarter, the company forecasts revenue of $75 million to $77 million, or 15.8-18.9 percent growth year-over-year. Analysts' estimate revenue to be $83.06 million for the fourth quarter.

LightInTheBox stated, "Recently, we made good progress in revenues from mobile ecommerce and recently we launched an updated version of our LightInTheBox app, as well as our first MiniInTheBox app for the iPhone platform to further improve our mobile customer experience. We are excited by our opportunities ahead as we continue to build a strong growth platform that we believe will result in improved operating performance and profitability in the coming quarters."

Currently, the stock is trading down 20.24 percent, or $2.02, at $7.96 on the NYSE.