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 enterprise software maker Progress Software (Nasdaq: PRGS) regressed today, falling as much as 12.2% on heavy volume.

So what: The company just reported third-quarter results with surprisingly strong earnings but a bleak outlook for the coming quarter. Management explained that the shaky economy caused several large customers to delay their software orders, thus halting Progress' progress.

Now what: I'd buy that explanation at face value if Progress' rivals were seeing the same transaction pattern develop, but that's not the case. TIBCO Software (Nasdaq: TIBX) and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) recently reported their own equivalent results and outlooks with none of that delay nonsense. IBM (NYSE: IBM) will do the same in just a couple of weeks. Granted, all of these competitors are materially larger than Progress, making them less susceptible to uneven performance. Still, I smell execution problems here, and management doesn't want to own up to it.

Interested in more information about Progress Software? Add it to My Watchlist.