Viant Technology forecasted better-than-expected sales for the first quarter and full-year 2021 after results topped analysts’ expectations in 4Q 2020. However, shares of the advertising software company declined almost 8% in Monday’s extended trading session after closing 14.3% higher on the day.
Viant (DSP) reported 4Q earnings of $12.86 per share, down 43.7% year-over-year but comfortably beating analysts’ expectations of $10.33. Revenue of $56.5 million outpaced the Street’s estimates of $44.03 million and advanced 9% from the year-ago period.
The company’s adjusted EBITDA grew 66% in the quarter to $15.6 million. (See Viant Technology stock analysis on TipRanks)
Viant’s CFO Larry Madden said, “As we look ahead to 2021, we anticipate that retail, automotive and travel verticals will recover as we move through the year, and we expect to see continued growth across all other verticals. Additionally, we expect that strength in CTV coupled with our salesforce expansion will be sustainable drivers of growth.”
As for 2021, the company forecasts revenues to grow by 17%-21% year-over-year, which implies a range of $194 million-$200 million, higher than the consensus estimate of $189.02 million.
For 1Q, revenue is expected to land between $38 million and $38.5 million, versus the consensus estimate of $36.27 million.
On March 8, JMP Securities analyst Ronald Josey initiated coverage of the stock with a Hold rating.
Josey “is impressed with Viant’s people-based targeting approach and believes that it is well positioned to capture share of the $80B programmatic advertising market in a post-cookie world along with over $70B in U.S. linear TV ad spend moves online.”
However, “with shares trading at 15.5-times on enterprise value to expected revenue and 72-times expected EBITDA basis,” the analyst “prefers a better entry point to recommend Viant shares.”
The rest of the Street is cautiously optimistic about the stock with a Moderate Buy consensus rating. That’s based on 2 Buys and 3 Holds. The average analyst price target of $49 implies 18% downside potential to current levels. Shares have increased 25.2% over the past year.
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