By Senad Karaahmetovic
LivePerson (NASDAQ:LPSN) shares are trading about 46% down in pre-market Thursday after the company offered a soft outlook.
LivePerson reported a loss per share of $0.55 on revenue of $122.5 million, which compares to the analyst consensus for a profit per share of $0.12 on sales of $126.9M. Sales fell 1.1% year-over-year while the adjusted EBITDA loss stood at $5.2M.
"For the past several years, we have focused on the AI opportunity presented by conversational commerce experiences. I can confidently tell you that we are at the forefront of Conversational AI and leading the enterprise market with our vision to digitize conversations between brands and their consumers," said founder and CEO Robert LoCascio.
For this quarter, the company expects revenue of $107.5M (midpoint) and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $6.75M (midpoint). Analysts were looking for a profit of $15M on revenue of $132.5M.
For FY23, the company sees revenue in the range of $395-410M and adjusted EBITDA range between $20M and $38M. The consensus was looking for revenue of $555.7M.
Following the Q4 report, several sell-side analysts downgraded their recommendation on LPSN stock. ROTH MKM analysts downgraded to Neutral with a price target of $6 per share.
"The combination of unexpectedly weak sales, ongoing losses and stressed liquidity leave us lowering our rating to Neutral and our PT to $6.00. While our PT warrants a Sell rating, we expect shares to trade immediately to this level at the open and therefore are using a Neutral rating for now," the analysts noted in a memo to clients.
Mizuho analysts cut the price target to $7 per share on the Neutral-rated LivePerson shares.
"We expect 2023 will be a difficult transition year for LPSN, although we are encouraged by the focus around 1) high-margin recurring core revenues; and 2) AI," they said.