In recent days, news from GoodRx Holdings (GDRX -17.51%) It wasn’t that good. On Thursday, the online pharmacy operator published unsatisfactory quarterly results. Investors responded by trading the company’s shares lower, and they were in the red by nearly 19% since the start of the week as of early Friday morning, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The good news: there has been growth

For the third quarter, GoodRx reported revenue of just over $195.3 million, an 8% growth over the same period in 2023. Non-GAAP Net income (adjusted) was $31.9 million, or $0.08 per share, a significant 25% year-over-year improvement.

Still, that wasn’t meaty enough for analysts following GoodRx stock. They were collectively modeling slightly higher adjusted net earnings per share of $0.09. The company also narrowly missed on revenue, with these experts’ average estimate being nearly $195.7 million.

Management attributed the gains to an increase in its core prescription transactions, which increased 4% to more than $140 million during the quarter. This was aided by a slight increase in the number of monthly active consumers, a key operational metric for the online operator. Their ranks grew to 6.5 million, up from 6.1 million a year ago. A smaller company, Pharma Manufacturer Solutions, saw its revenue jump 77% to more than $28 million.

Revenue forecasts fell short

These latest results probably didn’t merit such a sell-off, but combined with GoodRx’s revenue forecasts, they were dismaying. Management expects revenue of around $200 million for its current (fourth) quarter; However, this would mean timid growth, of only around 2%. This figure also fell short of analysts’ consensus forecast of $206 million.

As for the full year; revenue is expected to grow 6% to $794 million. But again, that falls short of the experts’ collective estimate, in this case nearly $801 million.

GoodRx isn’t doing as bad as the selloff might indicate, but in a world of increasing competition – a recent example being Amazonit’s pushing in same day pharmaceutical delivery — I don’t see it as a good buy for the future.