What happened
Nutanix (NTNX +1.30%) stock trailed the market last month by shedding 25% compared to a 1.8% uptick in the S&P 500, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The decline put the software specialist in negative territory for the year, down 11% compared to a 15% jump in the broader market.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Investors weren't excited about Nutanix's fiscal second-quarter report that was published early in the month. That announcement showed healthy sales growth as its customer base continued to expand and current clients signed up for more of its offerings. However, its short-term sales guidance was surprisingly weak, with revenue gains expected to slow to a crawl in the third quarter.
Now what
CEO Dheeraj Pandey and his team say the slowdown is mostly due to inefficient marketing spending and a bottleneck in hiring for the sales team. These issues have been addressed, executives say, so it's likely that revenue gains will speed back up over the following few quarters. Investors chose to take a wait-and-see approach to that guidance, given the risk that Nutanix could be feeling more pressure from rivals in the enterprise management software industry.
