• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Tech

GrubHub Couldn’t Satisfy Wall Street’s Appetite After Gorging on Marketing

By
Reuters
Reuters
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Reuters
Reuters
Down Arrow Button Icon
February 8, 2017, 11:15 AM ET
GrubHub IPO
The GrubHub Inc. app is displayed on an Apple Inc. iPhone 5 in Tiskilwa, Illinois, U.S., on Wednesday, April 2, 2014. GrubHub Inc., the Internet platform that enables users to order pick-up and delivery from restaurants, raised the expected price range for its initial public offering to $23 to $25 per share from $20 to $22 in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. The company plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GRUB. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesDaniel Acker/ Bloomberg via Getty Images

GrubHub reported a quarterly profit that missed analysts’ estimates as its efforts to attract more people to its food order and delivery services drove up marketing costs.

Shares of the company, which faces competition from Amazon.com’s Prime Now (AMZN), Yelp’s Eat24 (YELP), and Uber’s UberEATS, were down 7.5% at $38.21 in morning trading on Wednesday.

On an adjusted basis, the company earned 23 cents per share, missing the average analysts’ estimate of 25 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters (TRI).

The company’s net income rose to $13.6 million, or 16 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, from $11.3 million, or 13 cents per share, a year earlier.

“We are getting better at marketing in general,” Chief Financial Officer Adam DeWitt told Reuters in an interview, and said the company “feels good” about spending money on the marketing side.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

GrubHub’s (GRUB) quarterly sales and marketing expenses rose 19% to $29.6 million.

The company, whose network covers over 1,100 U.S. cities, also forecast revenue of $620 million-$660 million for the full year, slightly lower than estimates of $619.5 million.

The Chicago-based company gave a wider-than-usual range for full-year guidance allowing it to “flex up and flex down” on marketing spend and some other investments to drive additional growth, DeWitt said.

GrubHub’s revenue rose 37.5% to $137.5 million, narrowly beating estimates.

The company, which allows diners to order from more than 45,000 restaurants, said the number of active diners rose 21.2% to 8.2 million. Analysts were expecting 7.99 million active diners, according to market research firm FactSet StreetAccount.

About the Author
By Reuters
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
Fortune Secondary Logo
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

AIMilitary
Trump orders U.S. government to stop using Anthropic but gives Pentagon six months to phase it out amid standoff over AI use
By Jason MaFebruary 27, 2026
2 minutes ago
Arts & EntertainmentHollywood
The battle over WBD left three big winners on Wall Street—while the thousands who lost out will remain behind the scenes
By Geoff ColvinFebruary 27, 2026
13 minutes ago
Aerial view of a data center under construction in Ohio.
EconomyEconomics
Before AI gains materialize, governments will have to deal with a ‘policy trade-off,’ Moody’s says: How to handle the massive spending and debt risk
By Tristan BoveFebruary 27, 2026
1 hour ago
Graphic depicting a coin reads, Fortune Crypto: Facebook Crypto 2.0
CryptoCrypto Playbook
Facebook’s first crypto push set off a firestorm. This time around, its plans are met with a shrug
By Jeff John RobertsFebruary 27, 2026
2 hours ago
jack dorsey
AILayoffs
Block CEO Jack Dorsey lays off nearly half of his staff because of AI and predicts most companies will make similar cuts in the next year
By Jake AngeloFebruary 27, 2026
4 hours ago
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.
AIAnthropic
The Pentagon brands Anthropic CEO a ‘liar’ with a ‘God complex’ as deadline looms over AI use in weapons and surveillance
By Beatrice NolanFebruary 27, 2026
6 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Innovation
An MIT roboticist who cofounded bankrupt robot vacuum maker iRobot says Elon Musk’s vision of humanoid robot assistants is ‘pure fantasy thinking’
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezFebruary 25, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Jeff Bezos says being lazy, not working hard, is the root of anxiety: ‘The stress goes away the second I take that first step’
By Sydney LakeFebruary 25, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Trump claims America is ‘winning so much.’ The IMF agrees, adding that Trump’s trade policies are the only thing holding it back from even more
By Tristan BoveFebruary 26, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Gen Z Olympic champion Eileen Gu says she rewires her brain daily to be more successful—and multimillionaire founder Arianna Huffington says it really does work
By Orianna Rosa RoyleFebruary 25, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Commentary
'The Pitt': a masterclass display of DEI in action 
By Robert RabenFebruary 26, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
It’s more than George Clooney moving to France: America is becoming the ‘uncool’ country that people want to move away from
By Nick LichtenbergFebruary 27, 2026
13 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.