Shares of marketing tools maker Constant Contact (NASDAQ:CTCT) are surging after the company reported preliminary first quarter revenue that exceeded analysts’ projection. Last night, Constant Contact reported that it expected first quarter revenue to be between $78.7M-$78.8M, while analysts consensus view was $77.34M. The company raised its FY14 revenue guidance to approximately $330M, while analysts consensus had been just above $323M.
Constant Contact, which had previously seen FY14 revenue growth of more than 13%, said its current revenue guidance of $330M represents more than 15.5% year-over-year revenue growth.
During Constant Contact’s conference call, the company said that its better-than-expected first quarter revenue growth resulted from a strong performance from each of its growth levers, which include new customer additions, ARPU and retention. The company said it added 50K gross customers and 10K net new customers in the first quarter. Looking ahead to the balance of FY14, Constant Contact said it expects that the gains in the first quarter will flow through the remainder of the year. The company noted that the increase of its FY14 revenue guidance represents a new baseline with opportunities for further gains over the course of the year. In the coming weeks, Constant Contact also said it is planning to launch Toolkit, which is a new integrated business platform offering to small businesses that had previously only been available to larger enterprises.
Dougherty upgraded Constant Contact today following the better than anticipated preliminary first quarter results that the company announced yesterday, taking its rating on the shares up to Hold from its prior Sell rating.
Analysts have a consensus price target of $30.56 on Constant Contact (NASDAQ:CTCT) which indicates a 40% upside. The consensus rating of the stock is a BUY with a score of 2.60. There are currently 4 Hold Ratings and 6 Buy ratings on the stock. The most recent analyst action consisted of Credit Suisse Boosting their target price on the stock from $29 to $30.
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