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 security systems technologist VASCO Data Security International, (OSPN 1.77%) surged 17% on Thursday after its quarterly results and outlook topped Wall Street expectations.
So what: VASCO shares have soared in 2014 on signs of reaccelerating growth, and today's wide Q2 beat -- EPS of $0.17 topped the consensus by $0.04 on a revenue jump of 28% -- coupled with upbeat full-year guidance only reinforces that momentum. In fact, VASCO's operating margin during the quarter spiked to 16% versus 5% in the year-ago period, suggesting that its competitive position and cost structure are rapidly improving as well.
Now what: Management now sees full-year 2014 revenue of $175 million-$180 million, nicely above its prior view of $168 million-$172 million, as well as the consensus view of $170.4 million. "The strength of both our intake of new orders and our pipeline of prospective orders has given us the confidence to increase our guidance for both full-year revenues and operating margins," said Chairman and CEO T. Kendall Hunt. "We were also very pleased to expand our authentication technology portfolio with the acquisition of Risk IDS, a risk-based authentication solution. While Risk IDS is small, it gives us an important base upon which we can invest and build our own contextual authentication solutions." Of course, with VASCO's highly volatile shares now up about 50% over the past three months alone and trading at a forward P/E of 25, much of those prospects might already be baked into the price.
