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What's happening?
Shares of CalAmp (CAMP -1.25%) dropped 10% early Wednesday after the wireless communications specialist turned in solid fiscal 2015 third-quarter results, but followed with weaker than expected forward revenue guidance.
Why it's happening
Quarterly revenue remained essentially flat at $63.2 million, helped by 10% year-over-year growth in revenue for its wireless datacom business, to $54.6 million. However, that was undercut by a 37% decline in revenue in the satellite business, to $8.6 million. Combined, that translated to an 8.7% increase in adjusted earnings per share, to $0.25. Analysts, on average, had expected roughly the same revenue to result in earnings of just $0.23 per share.
For the current quarter, however, CalAmp expects revenue in the range of $66 million to $70 million, with adjusted net income per share of $0.26 to $0.30. Analysts were modeling earnings right in the middle of that range, but hoped for higher revenue of $71.1 million.
CalAmp CEO Michael Burdiek said during Tuesday's earnings conference call that satellite segment revenue is expected to reach roughly $8 million, or a decrease of roughly 25% year over year. That leaves CalAmp's more promising wireless datacom revenue stream with the remaining $58 million to $62 million, which would represent solid growth in the range of 17.9% to 26% over the same year-ago period. Burdiek also insisted that growth should continue "into 2016 and beyond" amid "very favorable market growth trends" for machine-to-machine applications.
In the end, that growth should maintain CalAmp shareholders' excitement. Keeping in mind that investors have known for some time CalAmp's satellite business is waning, I remained convinced the promise of this Internet of Things play remains firmly intact.
