IZEA Worldwide Inc (NASDAQ:IZEA) has been a less volatile stock until it announced the multiple deals it closed in December. The company revealed that it won several high paying contracts in the last month of the year together with contract renewals by long-term clients.
December Contracts
Among the new contracts secured in December is a six-figure influencer and content marketing services contract awarded by an affiliate of a renowned Fortune 10 company. Furthermore, the company signed multiple other 6-figure contracts with one of the largest grocery chains, an international restaurant chain, a giant electronics manufacturer, and a celebrated cloths maker.
Confirming the month’s success, Ted Murphy, Founder, and CEO of IZEA said that, “We saw renewals from long-time customers as well as a variety of new clients working with IZEA for the first time. Our push on software licensing and marketplace commitments had a meaningful impact on the month’s bookings, and we are excited by the momentum we have built.”
IZEA’s Stock Performance
Upon the announcement of the contract wins, IZEA’s stock aftermarket price surged about 25% to $1.30. As of this writing, the shares closed at $1.29, up 9.32% from its opening price of $1.18. During the trading session, the shares dived to a low of $1.14 before settling at the closing price. The stock has moved 47.48% from its 52-week low of $0.80 while on the other hand shifting -84.47% from its 52-week high of $7.60. The shares have a volatility of 0.67.
Source: stockcharts.com
IZEA’s Financials
The recently announced transactions are likely to be captured in the company’s Q4 2018 report scheduled for January 7, 2019. If the announcement is anything to go by then the company’s revenue numbers are expected to increase.
IZEA posted mediocre results for its Q3 2018 in November last year. Revenue slammed 18% year over year to $5.58 million. However, net bookings increased by 20% to $9.5 million compared to 2017’s $7.9 million for the same period. Nonetheless, IZEA made it to the Orlando Sentinel Top 100 Company for the third year in a row beside securing a strategic partnership deal with Pinterest.
IZEA Appoints new CTO
Meanwhile, IZEA promoted Chris Staymates to the position of Chief Technology Officer. Staymates served as the vice president of engineering upon joining the company in 2015. Among Staymates’ duties when he joined IZEA was restructuring IZEAx infrastructure to an enterprise-grade influencer marketing platform.
During his tenure in the Engineering docket, Staymates revamped the company’s technology stack significantly enhancing user experience in the process. He is credited with introducing things like contentMine, VizSearch, and ScoreSuite.
Murphy, the Company’s CEO showered Staymates with praise highlighting some of his achievements at the VP of engineering. In his statement, CEO expressed his confidence in Staymates leadership.
Staymates will now lead a team of software engineers, elite product designers, data scientists, and customer-facing personnel. He will be tasked with driving customer success through software ideation and delivery.
Before joining IZEA, Staymates worked as a Software Architect and Lead Engineer at Electronics Arts where he foresaw the creation of successful franchises like Madden NFL, NCAA Football, and NFL blitz among several others.
Staymates takes up his new assignment with a proven track record. In his statement, he says that he is happy serving alongside IZEA’s team and that he is thrilled about the previous achievements they have accomplished together.