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 CalAmp Corp. (CAMP -2.23%) plunged nearly 23% Friday after the wireless communications specialist turned in disappointing fiscal fourth-quarter 2014 results.
So what: Quarterly revenue rose 24% year over year to $59.8 million, including 32% growth in Wireless Datacom sales and a 4% decrease in satellite revenue. This translated to adjusted net income of $7.1 million, or $0.20 per diluted share. Analysts, on average, were looking for adjusted earnings of $0.21 per share on sales of $61.49 million.
In the current quarter, CalAmp expects revenue in the range of $56 million to $60 million, with adjusted net income per share in the range of $0.17 to $0.21. By contrast, analysts modeled adjusted earnings of $0.23 per share on sales of $64.3 million.
Now what: CalAmp CEO Michael Burdiek blamed the guidance shortfall on an expected revenue decline of roughly $3 million from a "key OEM customer in the solar power industry," as well as a continued "slight" sequential decline in Satellite revenue. Even so, Burdiek insisted they anticipate the second half of this fiscal year will be stronger than the first, thanks primarily to CalAmp's emerging insurance and heavy equipment customers. This should drive CalAmp's adjusted earnings per share to increase year over year by roughly 30%.
That's fair enough, but I still prefer to let the dust settle before diving into CalAmp stock. For now, I'm perfectly happy leaving CalAmp on my watchlist to keep tabs over the next few quarters on how its long-term prospects pan out.
