Black Box's Shares Popped: 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 network installation specialist Black Box (Nasdaq: BBOX  ) gave us some clarity today, rising as much as 12.5% on triple its (admittedly anemic) average volume.

So what: Last night's second-quarter report showed record sales and an optimistic third-quarter forecast, which was enough to overcome a somewhat disappointing earnings performance. Separately, the company also won a contract to deploy a ShoreTel (Nasdaq: SHOR  ) communications network at the new Marlins baseball stadium in Miami.

Now what: Government sales were a bit slow but Black Box easily made up for that shortfall elsewhere. The company installs and helps customers manage a plethora of communications solutions, including voice, video, and unified communications products from industry giants Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO  ) , Polycom (Nasdaq: PLCM  ) , and Avaya. Not every telecom, large public facility, or enterprise campus wants to perform these services on their own, and Black Box wants to earn its name -- all you see is a working system, without worrying too much about what goes on inside.

Before I start to sound like a Black Box infomercial, let me point out that gross margins are getting thinner and long-term sales growth is modest at best. Black Box performs a welcome service in a large market, but has some work to do before becoming all that it could be.

Interested in more info about Black Box? Click here to add it to My Watchlist.