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 medical device maker Accuray (ARAY -0.91%) jumped as much as 13% after the company reported its third-quarter earnings results.
So what: For the quarter, the maker of the CyberKnife image-guided robotic surgery system for solid tumor removal reported revenue of $70.6 million, compared to $101.6 million in the year-ago period, and a loss per share of $0.37. Both figures fell well short of the Street's expectations for revenue of $77 million and an EPS loss of $0.22. In addition, Accuray slightly lowered its full-year sales guidance to a range of $310 million to $318 million from the $320 million to $330 million forecast at the end of last quarter.
Now what: This may seem like a confusing move for such comparatively poor results, but there's actually a good reason for the move higher: sequential product revenue growth. Net new product orders totaled $44.1 million during the third-quarter compared to just $17.9 million in the second-quarter, demonstrating that its new products may be gaining traction. Furthermore, its backlog rose by 7% to nearly $298 million. While I understand why shareholders are bumping the stock higher today -- because this may be the first bit of decent news they've seen in months -- I also can't get over the fact that Accuray's restructuring will be a slow and ongoing process that will result in continued losses over the interim. With that in mind, I'd gladly keep my distance from Accuray until I see consistent profitability.
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