Analyst-Backed Media Giant Could Be Eyeing Another Earnings Beat

Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE:SSTK) is a global provider of stock photography, footage, music, and editing tools. SSTK operates a creative platform that offers tools for brands, businesses, and media companies. Shutterstock maintains a library of over 370 million royalty-free stock photos, vector graphics, and illustrations, with over 21 million video clips and music tracks available for licensing. They have offices around the world and customers in more than 150 countries. At last check, SSTK was trading up 19% at $107.69.

Shutterstock stock has increased by about 160% year-over-year, and has more than doubled from its July 2020 bottom of $41.96. Additionally, shares of SSTK have grown by 52% year-to-date and just this morning hit a fresh record high of $108.96. Shutterstock stock also has a forward dividend of $0.84 and a dividend yield of 0.81%.

Last month Shutterstock announced that the leadership team will be reporting its second-quarter earnings before the open on Tuesday, July 27. SSTK has remarkably outperformed earnings expectations on all four of its most recently released reports. At this time, analysts are anticipating a significant drop in earnings per share (EPS) reported for Q2 compared to Q1.

For Q2 of 2020, Shutterstock beat analysts’ estimates by a margin of $0.36 and reported an EPS of $0.62. For Q3 of 2020, SSTK's EPS increased to $0.80, beating expectations by a wide margin of $0.51. For Q4 of 2020, Shutterstock posted another increase in earnings, rising to $0.93 per share and outperforming estimates by a margin of $0.33. For the first quarter of 2021, Shutterstock reported an EPS of $0.98 and beat expectations by a margin of $0.28.

Moreover, Shutterstock isn’t a fast growing company despite SSTK’s bullish movement over the past year. Nonetheless, the media company has maintained consistent annual revenue growth over the past few years. Shutterstock stock currently trades at an inflated price-earnings ratio of 40.03. Overall, SSTK is appears to be more of a selling opportunity than it is a buying opportunity, especially after just reaching a new 52-week high.

Worth noting, heading into today's trading, all five covering analysts boasted a "buy" or "strong buy" recommendation. In other words, there remains plenty of room for bear notes, should this optimism begin to unwind.