What Happened?
Shares of online insurance comparison site EverQuote (NASDAQ:EVER) jumped 31.5% in the pre-market session after the company reported a standout Q4 2024 result, with revenue and EBITDA significantly crushing Wall Street's estimates. Sales soared 165% compared to the previous year, fueled by a considerable rebound in the automotive insurance segment, which more than tripled. This sharp recovery highlights improving industry conditions and the company's ability to capitalize. On the profitability side, things looked even better. Adjusted EBITDA hit $18.9 million, flipping from a loss last year, thanks to strong margin expansion. Looking ahead, the company's first-quarter EBITDA guidance significantly exceeds analyst expectations, with a projected midpoint growth of 163% relative to the previous year. Zooming out, this was a solid quarter, marked by rapid growth, improved profitability, and strong guidance.
Is now the time to buy EverQuote? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
What The Market Is Telling Us
EverQuote’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 31 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for EverQuote and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business. The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 7 months ago when the stock gained 19.3% on the news that the company reported second-quarter earnings results. EverQuote blew past analysts' revenue expectations. In addition, next quarter's revenue guidance came in higher than Wall Street's estimates. Zooming out, we think this was a great quarter that shareholders will appreciate.
EverQuote is up 23.5% since the beginning of the year, and at $25.01 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $26.80 from August 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of EverQuote’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $625.07.
Today’s young investors won’t have read the timeless lessons in Gorilla Game: Picking Winners In High Technology because it was written more than 20 years ago when Microsoft and Apple were first establishing their supremacy. But if we apply the same principles, then enterprise software stocks leveraging their own generative AI capabilities may well be the Gorillas of the future. So, in that spirit, we are excited to present our Special Free Report on a profitable, fast-growing enterprise software stock that is already riding the automation wave and looking to catch the generative AI next.