What happened
Ubiquiti (UI 5.61%) stock -- like most stocks -- fell apart in Monday trading, closing the day down 10.7%. In fact, at one point, Ubiquiti apparently fell quite a bit faster than most stocks. According to TheFly.com, the first 20 minutes of trading this morning saw Ubiquiti shares sink so fast that trading in the stock was actually halted because of volatility in the trading day's 21st minute.
But was there an actual reason for the sell-off? I mean, a reason other than coronavirus?
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Apparently not. Fact is, it's been a good month since the last time Ubiquiti had something significant to report -- specifically, its fiscal Q2 2020 earnings, which came out early last month.
Granted, those numbers weren't great. Earnings rose 10%, but revenue barely budged year over year, and the company missed analyst estimates. But again -- that was more than a month ago. Since then... crickets.
Now what
In the meantime, Ubiquiti stock has shed 25% of its market capitalization, a fact that might lead some to believe this tech stock is due for a rebound. But here's the thing: Even down 25%, at its current market cap of $9.2 billion, Ubiquiti shares sell for a very pricey 27 times trailing earnings (and 28 times trailing free cash flow). Even with earnings growing 10% last quarter -- in fact, even if you assume that Ubiquiti dodges any ill effects of the coronavirus pandemic and succeeds in growing earnings at the faster 12.5% rate analysts project for it over the next five years -- this stock remains decidedly not cheap.
Down 11% today, and down 25% since earnings, Ubiquiti shares still have room to fall.
