Eventbrite grows revenue, profit and sales in first public financials

The newly public ticketing company reported YoY growth of over 45% in Q3 2018, though its share price took a hit after missing Wall Street earnings expectations

By Jon Chapple on 13 Nov 2018

image © Eventbrite

Eventbrite’s first financial quarter as a public company saw big increases in all key performance indicators, with double-digit growth in turnover, gross profit and ticket sales.

The San Francisco-based ticketing/event management business, which launched on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year, posted year-on-year growth in revenue of 45.1% (US$73.6m), paid ticket sales of 32.2% ($23.9m) and gross profit of 41.7% ($42.2m), as well as increasing adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) from $1m to $11.2m.

While operating loss widened, from $10.4m to $13.1m, MarketWatch notes that “nearly half” of Eventbrite’s losses “were credited to stock-based compensation, which can be especially heavy in the first quarter after an initial public offering” (IPO).

Its net loss was $35.5m, which also included a one-off $17.2m loss on extinguishing debt.

Despite the positive headline figures, the Q3 report sent Eventbrite’s share price tumbling more than 8%, reports CNBC, after the company missed earnings expectations: Analysts predicted a loss equivalent to 47¢ share, rather than the $1.24 reported.

The picture is also complicated slightly by amortisation (or regular payments) related to the company’s $200m acquisition of Ticketfly last September, with another $2.8m in amortised losses forecast for the fourth quarter of 2018.

“We’ve tapped into a large, under-served global opportunity”

However, it beat revenue expectations by nearly $2m – reporting $73.6m against a predicted $71.7m – and, at the time of writing, its ~$31 share price is still up more than 30% above the IPO price of $23.

“Eventbrite is succeeding, even as its stock price is retreating,” summarises the Motley Fool analyst Rick Munarriz.

Speaking to investors during the company’s Q3 earnings call, Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz (pictured) highlighted its recent Eventbrite Music launch, integration with YouTube and continued “efficient creator acquisition and predictable revenue retention” as positive indicators for Q4 and beyond.

“We’ve tapped into a large, under-served global opportunity in the mid-market of live experiences, and our goal is to help fuel this large and growing market,” she said.

Eventbrite CFO Randy Befumo added the company expects net revenue of $72–74m in Q4, “representing 16.4% year-over-year growth”. He also revealed that 2019 will likely see the business “taking targeted pricing actions in particular markets, in order to drive greater volume” of ticket sales.

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