What happened?
High-performance networking solutions provider QLogic (QLGC) saw a modest pop in its share price last week, on the back of its latest quarterly results announcement. For the company's fiscal Q3 2016, net revenue came in at just under $123 million, representing a 13% year-over-year decline. Adjusted net income fell by 11% over that stretch of time to land at $28 million ($0.33 per diluted share).
In spite of the declines, both line items came in above the average analyst estimates, which had anticipated nearly $118 million in the top line and $0.26 in adjusted per-share net profit.
The company provided guidance for its current quarter. It believes net revenue will be $113 million to $119 million, with earnings per share ranging from $0.23 to $0.27. Those figures for Q4 2015 were $133 million and $0.28, respectively.
Does it matter?
A revenue and earnings beat is always pleasant news for shareholders. QLogic was lucky that its latest set of results came on a very bullish day for the market. But the company probably deserves a more robust reaction from investors. This is its second EPS beat in a row, following a Q2 where it outpaced the average analyst projection of $0.14 by $0.03.
The high-end networking components segment is doing rather well as a group as well -- the stock market roller coaster aside, customers are obviously eager to build out this sort of infrastructure. Oclaro (OCLR), to name one, surprised on the upside with revenue and EPS in its most recently reported quarter, giving a lift to its stock price. But in contrast to QLogic, Oclaro has been loss-making more often than not in the recent past.
Oclaro's next earnings report will come down the pipe on Tuesday. If it posts another set of beats, perhaps investor sentiment on the segment in general -- and for rival QLogic in particular -- will give a new jolt to these companies' share prices.
