Shares of Quinstreet the company that bought insurance.com and Carinsurance.com and Insure.com have tumbled over the last few days and is down over 20% today.
Shares of Quinstreet are at 1pm EST sitting at around $11.50 down over $3 on the day.
Quinstreet is now off over 50% off its high of $24 this year.
The cause of the selling?
Revised guidance from the company which now forecasts a weaker-than-expected fiscal 2012 revenue and said growth in its current 4th quarter and 1st Q of next fiscal year would be flat versus last year.
On a conference call Quinstreet reported they were seeing weaker demand from their education vertical.
For fiscal year 2012, the company forecast revenue of $455 to $475 million, which was below analyst average expectations of $480 million
Demand Media hit a new low two days ago. Still room for that one to fall further into the single digit range.
TLD
Yes Demand is around $13.15 which is a new low but the stock is actually holding up pretty well, as the market is really sucking it hard in general
Nobody needs insurance anymore.
Groupon IPO is on hold
Linked in…who cares
this could be a great buy in window for a company quickly diversifying…or for a keen private equity firm, a great chance to make a play and buy this out similar to the path of bankrate or internet brands as the market cap is well under one billion
@MHB
You thinking its a buying opportunity yet?
Looks tempting imo and good entry price.
This is prob not the main reason for the drop, but I think Wall St is pricing in that SEO is dead, at least biz model of gaming SEO results as a way to run big biz like DM is dead.
And I think it is great news for top-tier domains values (and bad news for domains that make poor brands and have potential SEO as their main value). SEO not working and affiliate marketing not working means there is no way to get free traffic any more. Which means that if you want new traffic/new leads, you need to spend money on marketing/advertising. And that means branding becomes a lot more important, and therefore top-tier domains are becoming more in-demand and more valuable.
Some companies offer discounts to motorists who drive a lower than average number of miles a year. Low mileage discounts can also apply to drivers who car pool to work. “Auto Insurance Clearance” is the place you should be if you need auto insurance at the best price
Jon@ Agreed, deep pockets are needed. The top 1-2 word com & cc EMD’s (Quinstreet insurance) give instant credibility that fits into the consumers thought pattern a frictionless process. My computable actions fit my evolved responses even if you control the highway ergo AutoInsurance.com Data.com will always have that edge to brand or through which to create a brand. Mr C Darwin agrees.
Remember this = http://www.marshallmcluhanspeaks.com/?video=SAY_005
QS is highly undervalued. They’re taking a hit because of the education sectors decline. If I were one of a few different large private (tech savvy) hedge funds I’d snap them up. Berkshire Hathaway would do well with this as an acquisition as well.
My prediction for QuinStreet will be that they continue to fall, here’s why:
Quinstreet misrepresents how they obtain leads-they claim through video and sales people that they get the leads from websites that people visit and then complete a form asking for service. I had 4 of their “leads” tell me that they did not visit a website, did not request information.
I was able to get full details from 2 of their leads who told me that they were cold called by someone (one said the accent of the caller was so thick he couldn’t understand her). The caller asked them if they wanted information about a website. To get the solicitor off the phone they simply said “you can send me info if you want but I’m not interested.” Then they started getting calls from vendors.
Out of the 106 “leads” I received I was only able to connect with 16. Many had bad email addresses (and they don’t credit for that). Most just never returned phone calls or even opened the email (I have a program that checks). Out of the few I was able to contact I sold 3. That’s 3 out of 106. The industry standard is 1 out of 5 or 1 out of 10 at worst.
When I tried to reach anyone in management to discuss my concerns I couldn’t get through to anyone but voicemail. No one is ever available and my sales rep was absolutely no help.
Stay away from Quinstreet – There are better lead companies out there!