What happened

Shares of e-commerce service provider BigCommerce Holdings (BIGC -1.07%) were down 12.1% headed into Friday's close, largely in response to last quarter's disappointing results.

So what

Investors are certainly surprised, given the stock's reversal. BigCommerce shares had spent the past three months recovering from a sell-off spurred by the previous quarter's similarly lackluster numbers, climbing nearly 67% from May's low to yesterday's close. Friday's setback wiped away roughly a third of that rebound rally.

Businessman watching a chart fall out of sight.

Image source: Getty Images.

The catalyst was Q2 numbers. Sales of $49 million were 35% higher year over year, and the per-share loss of $0.17 was significantly less than the loss of $0.54 per share from the second quarter of 2020. The bottom line, however, missed analyst estimates for a more muted loss of only $0.11 per share; topping sales expectations of $46.8 million wasn't enough to prevent a pullback.

Strong revenue growth forecasts aren't helping either. The company projects revenue of between $54.5 million and $55 million for the quarter now underway, and sales of between $210.7 million and $211.7 million for the full fiscal year, both of which are better than current analyst estimates in addition to being better than year-ago comps. In the third quarter of 2020, BigCommerce produced $39.7 million worth of revenue.

Now what

It's difficult to pinpoint investors' exact worry; there may be more than one. One of them is certainly concern that in an environment where smaller merchants are reportedly desperate for self-sufficiency when it comes to their e-commerce presence, BigCommerce isn't exactly knocking it out of the park. The lingering lack of profitability may also be a stumbling block, even if the company is making progress on that front.

None of this is exactly new for this young company, however. This was always a high-risk/high-reward prospect. That's not changed since yesterday. As such, Friday's tumble is a buying opportunity for investors who can stomach the risk.