Revenue fell year over year; stock down 25% since earnings report.
Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) released earnings last week and reported a slight drop in revenue in its domain name business for Q3. The result echoes what many companies in the domain registration business are experiencing as the pandemic boom recedes.
Revenue in its domains business was $60.3 million in the quarter, down 1% from Q3 2021. The adjusted EBITDA for the domain name business was down 9%.
In a pre-recorded investor briefing, Dave Woroch, CEO of Tucows Domains, said the company is “reviewing and streamlining expenses.”
The strong dollar is also hurting the business:
For many of our resellers in Europe, we price services in euros and have a cost base in U.S. dollars. The currency impacts from the U.S. dollar gaining strength against the
euro has and continues to apply downward pressure to our gross margin. To address this, we have adjusted prices in Q3 and have announced that we will do so again later this quarter.
Tucows has other business lines, and overall revenue at the company grew 2.8% to $78.1 million.
Shares in Tucows have dropped about 25% since the earnings report.
Tucows Third Quarter 2022 Earnings: US$0.74 loss per share (vs US$0.13 profit in 3Q 2021)
I know it looks pretty scary when you read the headline above especially when you go back to the previous quarter and see that they lost 29 cents per share.
It sounds like Tucows is going down the drain so it is no surprise that its stock price has dropped almost 70% since the beginning of the year when it was at 83 and that it has dropped 39% since the beginning of November when it was at 45.31.
I think reports of Tucows demise are greatly exagerrated. Keep in mind that there is a land rush going on in the fiber business and Tucows wants to stake its claim to as much territory as they can. “We know well that even building for a small proportion — one million, three million — of the 70 million homes that will be passed over the next five years, will create a fantastic outcome for [our] business,” said Tucows President Elliot Noss.
Tucows has been showing big losses for the past year. The fiber business is front loaded. You have to make a big capital investment up front to install fiber for an entire city and you don’t see the fruits of that investment until later on. Ting spent about $23.7 million in capex in the third quarter, a 70% jump year-over-year as the company continues to ramp up its fiber buildout. Increasing capex contributed to an $8 million overall net loss for Tucows during the third quarter.
But everything is going according to plan. Tucows is not opportunity limited. They have all the business they can handle. The losses from their initial capital investment will continue as they continue to execute their big projects in Colorado Springs, Aurora, Centennial, and Alexandria.
Tucows has the contracts in place, and they have the installation teams in place. They have the long term financing in place when they secured up to $200 million USD in financing from Generate Capital in August.
I see the present situation as a buying opportunity.
Hugh Pickens
Investor in Tucows since 2007