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 Dealertrack Technologies Inc (TRAK.DL) fell more than 14% early Tuesday, then settled to close down around 7.6% after the company turned in mixed first-quarter results.
So what: Including the impact of acquisitions, Dealertrack's quarterly revenue rose 46% year over year, to $158.8 million. That translated to adjusted net income of $11.5 million, or $0.23 per diluted share. Analysts, on average, were looking for earnings of $0.29 per share on sales of $158.1 million.
In addition, DealerTrack now expects full-year revenue between $814 million and $826 million, compared to its previous guidance for 2014 revenue between $800 million and $816 million. However, DealerTrack didn't follow suit by also raising its full-year earnings guidance, which still calls for 2014 adjusted net income per share between $1.42 and $1.53. Analysts, for their part, went into the report modeling 2014 earnings of $1.48 per share on sales of $807.5 million.
Now what: After noting that initial integration efforts of their acquisition of Dealer.com are currently under way, DealerTrack CEO Mark O'Neil stated, "We are becoming increasingly optimistic about 2014, as reflected in our increased full year revenue guidance, and believe we are positioned for continued growth as we realize our vision of transforming automotive retailing."
Shares have also pulled back around 20% since February, when I last opted to remain on the sidelines, and currently trade around 28 times this year's expected earnings. Still, I can't blame the market for taking a step back given DealerTrack's bottom-line miss, and I'd like to see how DealerTrack's integration with Dealer.com pans out in the coming quarters. For now, that's why I'm just fine keeping DealerTrack on my watch list.
