Stamps.com to buy larger HQ, as growth reaches record levels
US online postage company Stamps.com is set to move into a new corporate headquarters building next year, it said as it revealed record growth in its third quarter of 2011. The Los Angeles-based company in the process of buying a $13.4m property comprising two buildings and 82,000 square feet of space, in a deal that could close early in 2012.
It will then take some time to renovate the building before moving in mid-2012. The building’s existing tenants are to lease part of the property.
Stamps.com, which provides online postage and shipping software, said today its revenue grew by 20% in the three months up to the end of September 2011, compared to the same period last year, to $24.9m.
Net income was $5.5m, up 52% compared to the same period last year.
Its core business, PC Postage, saw a 25% year-on-year growth in revenue to $22.7m, providing postage to businesses ranging from small companies through to high volume mailers. The PC Postage service has a gross margin of 77.7%.
Stamps.com is reducing its investment in non-core business like PhotoStamps, which has seen its sales down 2% year-on-year to $1.4m.
For the full 2011, Stamps.com has slightly extended its revenue forecast, predicting a $92m to $102.5m full-year revenue. Back in July, it was predicting a $90m-$100m range, while February’s prediction was $82.5m-$92.5m.
New records
Ken McBride, the Stamps.com president and CEO said the guidance on the remainder of the year had been raised once again, as a result of the continued strength in the business.
“We achieved the highest year-over-year growth rate we have ever seen in our core PC Postage businesss revenue at 25%, and we achieved 52% year-over-year growth in our non-GAAP net earnings per share,” he said.
“We also set new records in many of our key customer metrics including total paid customers, average revenue per paid customer, customer postage printed and new enterprise seats added during the quarter, and our high volume shipping postage printed amounts continued to exhibit triple-digit growth rates.”
Trading in Stamps.com shares rose 7.91% by close of play yesterday as investors reacted to the third quarter results. The shares are running close to a 52-week high of $26.50 per share, seen earlier this month, and at one point yesterday reached $26.24.
