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 TESSCO Technologies, (TESS) plunged more than 15% Friday after the company turned in disappointing fiscal third-quarter results.
So what: Quarterly revenue fell 29% year over year to $144.9 million, which translated to net income of $4.4 million, or $0.53 per diluted share. By contrast, analysts were looking for net income of $0.64 per share on sales of $157.13 million.
In addition, while TESSCO affirmed its previous fiscal 2014 guidance of earnings per share in the range of $1.90 to $2.10, it reminded investors that to achieve the top end of that range would require both a faster-than-expected start of building from its public carrier customers, as well as earlier-than-expected benefits from the company's business generation engine investments.
Now what: To its credit, TESSCO did attempt to ease investors' disappointment by increasing its quarterly dividend by 11%, to $0.20 per share.
What's more, I'll admit the stock looks relatively inexpensive trading around 0.5 times sales and 13.6 times next year's estimated earnings -- but I'm still not intrigued enough to buy, especially given TESSCO's stagnant revenue growth and slim margins. For now, at least until the company's growth catalysts start to bear fruit, I'll be keeping TESSCO on my watchlist.
