Earnings Preview: Monster Worldwide

Monster Worldwide (MNST) is expected to report Q2 earnings after market close Thursday, July 31, with a conference call scheduled for 5:00 p.m. ET.

Guidance

Analysts are looking for EPS of 37c on revenue of $361.43M. The consensus range is 30c to 46c for EPS, and $349.9M to $372.68M for revenue, according to First Call. The sluggish economy and unemployment rates have made the first half of 2008 difficult for the company.

Analyst Views

In June Deutsche Bank's checks into US job postings at Monster indicate May business trends weakened from April levels, which the firm believes could suggest market share loss and could pressure earnings and revenues in Q2. When the sluggish trends continued in June the firm said it expects the stock to remain under pressure during the current uncertain economic environment. Deutsche maintained a Hold rating on the stock.

UBS stated it expects Monster to report a Q2 miss following checks that indicate a significant slowdown in internet job postings growth in the U.S. and Europe. The firm gave the company's shares a Neutral rating.

Comments

[bk329:]

Hopefully the current team announce resignations on the call. They've taken so long to turn this thing around, and have not acted on the obvious actions to fix, like concentrating top management on the core US business by bringing in the right partners for the rest of the business. Very frustrating.

2008 Jul 30 11:49 PM