Wolverine World Wide Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know

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: Shares of Wolverine World Wide (NYSE: WWW  ) fell as much as 15% in early trading before recovering to being down about 7% as of this writing. Investors didn't like what they heard from the maker of outdoor footwear, which reported second-quarter earnings this morning.

So what: Looking at the numbers, you wouldn't know there was a problem. Revenue grew 20% to $310.1 million, while per-share profit improved to $0.48, a 40% gain. Analysts were expecting $294.3 million and $0.46, respectively.

Now what: So, what gives? Management's conservative guidance, apparently. Wolverine maintained its full-year forecast, which calls for $2.40 to $2.50 in per-share earnings on $1.38 billion to $1.42 billion in revenue. Bullish investors wanted more, according to the consensus coverage.

I agree, but I also think unrevised guidance accounts for half of the story. Why they wanted an increase matters more. In this case, I think they were hoping for a catalyst to lift Wolverine past the $2 billion that VF (NYSE: VFC  ) has agreed to pay for Timberland (NYSE: TBL  ) , a similarly styled maker of outdoor shoes. What do you think? Weigh in using the comments box below.

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