Last month, GrubHub Inc. (NYSE:$GRUB) shares were highly sought by investors due to its impressive 16% climb. The key driver of its October gains? A strong third-quarter earnings report.
As the country’s leading food-takeout marketplace, GrubHub posted another round of impressive results as revenue jumped 32% to $163.1 million, beating analyst estimates at $159.6 million. Gross food sales in the quarter also increased $867 million, while active diners jump 28% to 9.81 million, and daily average grubs, or orders, were up 14% to 304,500. On the bottom line, adjusted earnings per share scooted up from $0.23 to $0.28, which topped expectations at $0.24.
Further, results undoubtedly benefitted from acquisitions of Foodler and 27 of OrderUp’s markets, both of which closed during the quarter. After the period, GrubHub close on its acquisition of Yelp’s (NYSE:$YELP) Eat24 for a cool $288 million.
GrubHub’s performance was the latest evidence that the company is becoming a strong contender to resist challenges from tough rivals like Amazon (NASDAQ:$AMZN) and Uber. Grubhub Inc. already has a majority of market share in 7 out of the 22 largest cities in the U.S, including New York, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia.
Looking towards the future, the company called for revenue of $197 million to $205 million in the current quarter, which was well above the consensus at $181.9 million as the company will benefit greatly from the Eat24 acquisition.
GrubHub shares are not up 66% year to date.
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