Why Cray Shares Popped (CRAY)

Why Cray Shares Popped

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 supercomputer maker Cray (Nasdaq: CRAY ) have popped by as much as 13% today after the company reported better-than-expected earnings.

So what: Revenue in the third quarter was $35.7 million, a healthy margin ahead of the consensus estimate of $30 million. The company's net loss of $5.2 million, or $0.14 per share, was much narrower than the $0.48 per share in red ink that investors were bracing themselves for.

Now what: The company just recently launched its Cray XC30 supercomputer after scoring several wins during the third quarter. Cray also just finished installing supercomputers at the University of Illinois and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. These two projects alone could represent about $180 million in revenue as two of the largest systems Cray has ever built. If both are completed this year, 2012 revenue should be in the ballpark of $450 million.

Interested in more info on Cray? Add it to your watchlist by clicking here.

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