Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Accuray (Nasdaq: ARAY) dropped 13% in intraday trading today after announcing disappointing third-fiscal-quarter earnings.

So what: Q3 non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.02 fell short of the consensus estimate of $0.04. Operating expenses -- sales and marketing, R&D, and general and administrative -- increased more than revenue, primarily because of $2.6 million in expenses related to a planned acquisition. Revenue grew 5% year over year.

Now what: Management noted that the backlog grew 18% year over year and reiterated fiscal 2011 revenue guidance of $210 million to $225 million. That points to revenue growth of 5% to 29% in the current (fourth fiscal) quarter. Management expects that its deal to acquire TomoTherapy will close in June or July and be accretive to fiscal 2012 earnings. It will take a lot of accretion to justify the company's uneven financial performance and its P/E ratio of 99.  

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