What: Shares of Verint Systems (VRNT 0.17%) were down 13.4% as of 11:30 a.m. Thursday after the actionable intelligence solutions company reported weaker-than-expected fiscal third-quarter results.
So what: Adjusted quarterly revenue fell 1.1% year over year to $285.3 million, but would have risen 5% had it not been for the negative effects of foreign exchange. Even so, that's well below Verint's long-term target for currency-neutral growth in the double-digit percentage range.
Verint CEO Dan Bodner elaborated, "We are pleased to have received several large orders in both enterprise intelligence and security intelligence, but continue to see longer customer approval cycles and are making adjustments to our go-to-market strategy to reduce our dependency on large projects."
Trending toward the bottom line, adjusted operating margin expanded to 22.1%, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) came in at $69 million. That translated to adjusted net income of $49.3 million, or $0.78 per diluted share.
Analysts, on average, were anticipating higher adjusted earnings of $0.79 per share, and revenue of $298.8 million.
Now what: For the full fiscal year, Verint now expects revenue of $1.15 billion to $1.19 billion (compared to previous guidance of $1.18 billion to $1.23 billion), operating margin between 22% and 23%, and earnings per diluted share of $3.30 at the midpoint of its revenue range (compared to $3.45 per share previously). Here again, Wall Street's models were more ambitious, predicting full fiscal year earnings of $3.46 per share on revenue of $1.2 billion.
In the end, that's not to say Verint won't be able to get back on track through corrective actions to reduce reliance on larger orders. And it's encouraging the company continues to secure wins in both the enterprise and security intelligence segments. But it's no surprise that both the market and Verint are disappointed with these results. For now, that's why I'm content watching Verint's progress from the sidelines.
