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 Cray, (CRAY) soared 39% Friday after the supercomputing specialist turned in solid fourth-quarter results and encouraging forward guidance.
So what: Quarterly sales rose nearly 63% year over year, to $307.4 million, which translated to adjusted net income of $1.48 per diluted share. By contrast, analysts were only expecting earnings of $1.39 per share on sales of $300.56 million.
Going forward, and with the caveat that "a wide range of results remains possible," Cray anticipates full-year 2014 revenue of $600 million. Once again, the majority of that number will be heavily skewed toward the back half of the year, with about $50 million expected in Q1, and roughly $300 million in Q4. Analysts, on average, were looking for 2014 sales of $596.25 million.
Cray also expects to be profitable on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis in 2014.
Now what: Shares currently trade at a lofty 48 times this year's expected earnings -- not horrendously expensive given Cray's growth; but at the same time it doesn't make me want to jump in, especially after today's massive pop. As it stands, I think investors would do well to let the dust settle before making any decisions about buying Cray in the near term.
