TIBCO Software Shares Dropped: 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 TIBCO Software (Nasdaq: TIBX  ) sank 13% on Wednesday after business software bellwether Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL  ) posted lackluster quarterly results.

So what: Investors are obviously taking Oracle's earnings miss as a clear sign that TIBCO's own soon-to-be released third-quarter results -- after market close -- will be just as disappointing. In fact, the entire space is getting hit on the whiff, with enterprise software stocks like IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) , SAP (NYSE: SAP  ) , and salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM  ) all down more than 4% today.

Now what: I'd look into this pullback as a possible buying opportunity. While it seems likely that TIBCO's quarterly guidance will fall short of expectations, you've got to think that the stock's now 25% plunge in December has done a good job in discounting much of the risk. When you add TIBCO's decent margins and rock-solid balance sheet, the downside doesn't look too scary.

Interested in more info on TIBCO? Add it to your watchlist.