Lending Club explodes on big earnings beat, just six months after losing its CEO
Now the company is staging a comeback, with shares jumping nearly 18% on Monday after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results and announcing a major partnership with the National Bank of Canada.
Lending Club's third quarter adjusted per-share loss came in at $0.04 a share, beating Street estimate of a loss of $0.07 a share. Its revenue was $114.56 million, exceeding analysts' $103.3 million estimate.
Loan originations, an important metric used by Lending Club investors, were $1.97 billion, slightly higher than the second quarter's $1.95 billion, but much lower than the $2.2 billion extended in the year-ago period.
Trust issues
Perhaps the biggest news was Lending Club's new investment deal with National Bank of Canada, who will spend up to $1.3 billion over the next 12 months on its loan-marketplace platform.
Lending Club's brand took a big hit after the controversial ouster of CEO Renaud Laplanche in May. But adding a major bank as a new partner signals it may be regaining the market's trust, and investors are buying into it.
"Today's results, along with our new executive team, and the return of banks to our platform, give me confidence as we begin our planning for 2017," Lending Club's CEO Scott Sanbord said in a statement.
Sanborn was named the permanent CEO in June, after serving as acting CEO following Laplanche's resignation in May. Laplanche, the founder of Lending Club and the once-poster child of online lending, stepped down in May after failing to fully disclose some of his investments and violating the company's lending practices.
Here's a look at the company's stock over the past 5 days:
