Shares of Coursera dropped after the online-learning platform said it had lower revenue in the second quarter when excluding the effects of a recent acquisition.
The stock slipped 17%, to $5.12, midday Thursday and has fallen 30% since the start of the year.
Chief Financial Officer Michael Foley told investors Wednesday that, while total second-quarter revenue jumped 60%, the company's sales excluding its May acquisition of Udemy fell 1%.
The problem stemmed from the Coursera's consumer-facing business, where normalized revenue fell 5%. Subscriptions for individual programs and Udemy's transactional offerings are under pressure, Foley said.
Management expects the challenges with those subscriptions to continue as Coursera aims to evolve into a subscription-first model, he said. The company is trying to pivot to more artificial-intelligence-native offerings to keep up with changing demands within online learning.
The company's guidance for the current third quarter implies that normalized revenue will decline again, Raymond James analysts said in a note.
Coursera also told investors Wednesday that it invested $100 million in LearnVector, an AI-native education startup. Some investors may see the move as a lot of spending without much short-term gain, the Raymond James analysts said.
"The $100M strategic investment in LearnVector may be the right bet long-term, but it eliminates some of the company's liquidity and will not likely contribute to revenue in the near-term," they said.
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