NEW YORK (AP) – Everyone wants in the Club.
Shares of Lending Club advanced 3 percent Wednesday after the company reported better-than-expected results and raised its full-year outlook as more people discover peer-to-peer lending as a cheaper alternative to a traditional bank.
It’s a positive bit of good news for a company whose the stock is down nearly 30 percent year to date as investors wait to see if Lending Club, and its competition, become as big as some investors believe it will be.
Lending Club is the largest company in the peer-to-peer lending industry, which has become one of the hottest topics among investors in the past year. Lending Club is not a bank nor does it lend money itself. Like other peer-to-peer lending companies, Lending Club operates a website that puts potential borrowers and investors together. Lending Club earns revenue by charging a servicing fee on all loans it helps create.
The San Francisco-based company said it earned an adjusted profit of 2 cents per share on revenue of $81.2 million. Analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research anticipated a profit of a penny per share on revenue of $74.7 million. Lending Club now expects its full-year revenue to be in a range of $385 million to $392 million, up from its previous range of $370 million to $380 million.