Cars.com (CARS) Q3 Earnings: What To Expect

Online new and used car marketplace Cars.com (NYSE:CARS) will be reporting results tomorrow before market open. Here’s what you need to know.

Cars.com missed analysts’ revenue expectations by 1.6% last quarter, reporting revenues of $178.9 million, up 6.4% year on year. It was a softer quarter for the company, with underwhelming revenue guidance for the next quarter and slow revenue growth. It reported 19,390 active buyers, up 3.2% year on year.

Is Cars.com a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free.

This quarter, analysts are expecting Cars.com’s revenue to grow 3.2% year on year to $179.9 million, slowing from the 5.9% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.45 per share.

The majority of analysts covering the company have reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Cars.com has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates three times over the last two years.

Looking at Cars.com’s peers in the online marketplace segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. EverQuote delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 163%, beating analysts’ expectations by 3%, and Shutterstock reported revenues up 7.4%, topping estimates by 4.1%. EverQuote traded up 3.9% following the results while Shutterstock was also up 12.1%.

Read our full analysis of EverQuote’s results here and Shutterstock’s results here.

There has been positive sentiment among investors in the online marketplace segment, with share prices up 8.6% on average over the last month. Cars.com is up 1.9% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $21.21 (compared to the current share price of $16.06).

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