Monster Reports Solid Quarter

 Monster Worldwide – parent company of the popular job board website Monster.com, recently reported their Second Quarter 2011 financial results. On the heels of their new search and analytics platform, Monster announced substantial earnings despite a sluggish economy.

Quarterly revenue increased by 25% to $270 Million, up from $215 million in the second quarter of 2010. Bookings increased by 26% over the year for a total of $262 Million. (Bookings represent the dollar value of contractual orders received, indicating future revenues)

Cash as of June 30, 2011 was $199 million compared to $163 million in December 31, 2010. Deferred revenue as of June 30, 2011 was $383 million compared to $280 million in June 30, 2010. The improvement marked a 37% year over year increase.

“We are pleased with our financial performance and solid execution in the second quarter,” said Sal Iannuzzi, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Monster Worldwide. “Bookings in our core careers business increased 30% year over year, despite a challenging macro environment. This strong performance is a testament to the breadth of our product portfolio, global scale and large seeker audience. We delivered on our commitment to improve profitability while remaining focused on product innovation. In the first six months of the year, the increase in operating income was equivalent to approximately 50% of the increase in revenue.”

While Monster’s confidence remains strong, Investors expressed mixed confidence in the online employment giant’s outlook – shares fell 9.21% on Thursday, closing at $11.93. It may have been due to overall economic climate and some concerns about government spending on employment services. Despite the company’s improving bottom line and profitability, shares have been trading well off their 52 week high of $25.90 (shares closed Friday at $11.74.) This disparity led Dan Caplinger of The Motley Fool to ask “Is Monster Worldwide the Perfect Stock?”

“Innovation is fundamental to our growth strategy as demonstrated by the recent launch of two new offerings – BeKnown, our professional networking application on Facebook, and SeeMore, the market’s first cloud-based semantic search and analytics platform for managing companies’ resume databases,” Iannuzzi said. “These offerings, combined with our portfolio of advanced recruitment products, positions Monster well for future growth.”