Angie’s List stock trades way down after lackluster 2Q results

Angie’s List stock price tanked Wednesday, after the company reported second-quarter results that failed to meet analysts’ expectations.

Angie’s stock closed down 24.63 percent, or $1.495 a share, to $4.575. That is just 21.5 cents above its 52-week low of $4.36 a share.

The online consumer review company reported revenue of $87 million in the quarter, 10.6 percent more than a year ago but short of Wall Street expectations of $89 million, according to a survey of analysts by Zacks Investment Research.

The company posted a loss of $8.3 million, or 14 cents a share, an improvement over a loss of $18 million a year ago but slightly worse than analysts' average forecast for a loss of 13 cents a share.

Investors also may be discouraged by the company's report that membership revenue fell 9 percent in the quarter to $18 million. Angie's added 519,853 members in the quarter, 24 percent fewer than were added in the same quarter last year.

Revenue from service providers was stronger, growing to $70 million in the quarter, a 17 percent gain over last year's second quarter.

Angie's also is facing head-on competition from Internet retailing giant Amazon, which announced today that it has rolled out its rival Home Services business in 11 more markets. That puts Amazon in 15 major cities where it competes against Angie's.

Angie's recently sued Amazon, charging the national online retailer with stealing proprietary information from the Angie's website.

Angie's is operating with an interim CEO, after the recent resignation of co-founder Bill Oesterle.

Interim CEO Mark Howell said in a statement that Angie's has "continued to execute on our strategy to grow revenue, increase margins and invest for growth."

Oesterle resigned after publicly criticizing the Indiana legislature and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence for passing a religious freedom law that he said didn't give protections to discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender individuals. Oesterle's comments prompted calls by some to boycott Angie's by dropping their memberships or not becoming a member.

The number of people who canceled their memberships over Oesterle's criticism of Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act was not disclosed.

"We don't believe it was meaningful to our overall numbers," said company spokeswoman Debra DeCourcy.

Angie’s has dropped its plan to buy and expand into a former Ford Motor Co. building on East Washington Street, near its Eastside campus, Chief Financial Officer Tom Fox said in a teleconference with investors and analysts.

Angie’s took a $686,000 asset impairment charge against second-quarter earnings to account for the dropped plan.

The proposed renovation of the old Ford building, now used as a warehouse by Indianapolis Public Schools, was part of a $40 million, 1,000-job expansion plan announced earlier this year by Angie’s. That plan, which involved receiving up to $25 million in city and state subsidies, was put on hold by Oesterle during the controversy over the RFRA.

Associated Press contributed to this report.

Call Star reporter Jeff Swiatek at (317)444-6483. Follow him on Twitter: @JeffSwiatek.