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 Verint Systems (VRNT 2.27%) jumped by more than 14% early Thursday, then settled to close up around 10% after the company announced solid first-quarter results, and raised fiscal full-year guidance.
So what: Adjusted quarterly revenue came in at $269.3 million, which translated to adjusted earnings of $0.72 per diluted share. Analysts, on average, were only looking for earnings of $0.55 per share on sales of $254.9 million.
In addition, Verint raised its outlook for full fiscal year sales by $30 million to a range of $1.11 billion to $1.16 billion. That should result in adjusted earnings per diluted share of $3.30 to $3.50. The mid-point of both ranges sits well above analysts' expectations for fiscal 2015 earnings of $3.30 per share on sales of $1.10 billion.
Now what: Verint has less than $250 million in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet, and more than $1 billion in long-term debt. Therefore, investors should keep an eye on how the company handles cleaning up its balance sheet over the long term. But this does mark Verint's fourth-consecutive quarter of accelerating sales growth, and shares look reasonably priced around 14 times next year's estimated earnings.
I'm not particularly interested in diving in today. But keeping in mind that those estimates are likely to climb as analysts have time to fully digest today's news, I wouldn't be surprised if Verint continues rewarding patient investors from here.
