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 Teradata Corporation (NYSE:TDC) plunged 10% Thursday after the company released solid first-quarter results, but followed with weaker-than-expected guidance.
So what: Quarterly revenue came in at $628 million, which translated to earnings of $0.54 per share. Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of just $0.47 per share on sales of $614.6 million.
Teradata also expects full-year 2014 sales "at the lower end" of its previous $2.77 billion to $2.88 billion range, which should result in earnings per share of $2.85 to $3.00. Wall Street went into the report hoping for slightly higher 2014 earnings of $2.93 per share on sales of $2.83 billion.
Now what: The guidance miss wasn't that significant, so today's drop may well be an overreaction, and shares look admittedly cheap trading around 12 times next year's expected earnings. In the end, I think shares of Teradata look attractive right now from a long-term perspective.
Steve Symington has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Teradata. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
