TrueCar Inc. reported a wider let loss in the second quarter and warned that it expects revenue for all of 2019 to fall below previous guidance.
The online car shopping service reported a second-quarter net loss of $24.1 million, compared with a net loss of $6.6 million last year. Revenue rose slightly to $88.1 million. On an adjusted basis, TrueCar lost $2.2 million, compared with net income of $3.2 million in last year's second quarter.
The website’s average monthly visitors decreased 7.7 percent in the second quarter to 7.2 million. And the number of vehicles purchased on TrueCar platforms from the company's dealer partners dropped slightly to 249,856. TrueCar also saw higher costs for sales and marketing, headcount and other expenses in the quarter.
Average transaction revenue per unit -- what TrueCar collects from dealers and automakers for each vehicle sold -- rose $1 to $333 in the period. TrueCar's franchised dealer count rose to 12,681 from 12,368, and the company's independent dealer ranks rose 27 percent to 4,014.
U.S. light-vehicle auto sales have dropped this year across the industry, with weaker retail demand offset by stronger fleet business.
TrueCar cut full-year revenue guidance to $345 million to $350 million, down from a previous estimate of $361 million to $375 million. It also reduced full-year adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation to a range of $10 million to $14 million, from a previous range of between $27 million to $36 million.
Shares of TrueCar closed down 27 percent at $3.52 in trading Friday.
During a conference call Thursday TrueCar CFO Noel Watson said the guidance reflected “removal of unsigned OEM business, tempered expectations around the adoption of our new dealer product, continued weakness in TrueCar.com traffic, consistent with recent performance, and additional flexibility to test traffic against our consumer controlled engagement model at greater levels than what we've been testing so far this year.”
TrueCar interim President and CEO Mike Darrow said the board is evaluating candidates to be permanent CEO, and that he is among those being considered. Former CEO Chip Perry, who helped TrueCar mend relationships with dealers, announced his retirement in June.
