Adtran Shares Got Crushed: 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: Adtran (Nasdaq: ADTN  ) shareholders dodged a bullet Wednesday. Despite meeting consensus earnings targets, the communications equipment maker delivered weaker-than-expected profit margins in Q3 and predicted as much as a 10% sequential slip in revenues for the current quarter -- sending the shares into an 11% nosedive.

So what: So it could have been a very bad day -- fortunately, the rest of the stock market was positively ebullient Wednesday, and some of that optimism seems to have rubbed off on Adtran, which ended the day down a more palatable 2%.

Now what: Management also promised to continue buying back shares, which can have the effect of boosting earnings per share. With Adtran costing only 14 times earnings, and still expected to score 12.5% long-term earnings growth (with a 1.2% dividend), this suggests at worst a fair valuation on the shares. My take: The selloff was overblown. Adtran may not be the cheapest stock on the market today, but it's hardly a sell.

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