Shareholders Are Miffed at These 2 Stocks Thursday Night

Investors were generally pleased with the stock market's performance on Thursday. After having lost substantial ground early in the session, major market benchmarks rebounded, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI -0.12%) led the way higher with gains of more than 1%. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC -1.15%) and S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.58%) also enjoyed solid gains.

Data source: Yahoo! Finance.

Yet in after-hours trading late Thursday, a couple of stocks announced financial results that disappointed their shareholders. Both Zscaler (ZS -0.78%) and ChargePoint Holdings (CHPT -6.67%) saw sharp share-price declines of more than 10% as investors responded to their latest news. Yet bulls for both stocks saw the drops as an overreaction. Read on to see what the companies said and then make up your own mind about whether the declines were justified.

Zscaler slides downward

Shares of Zscaler dropped 12% in after-hours trading on Thursday afternoon. The cybersecurity specialist reported fiscal second-quarter results for the period ending Jan. 31 that left investors concerned about what the future could bring.

Zscaler's quarterly numbers looked solid. Revenue grew 52% year over year to $388 million, with 34% growth in calculated billings. Adjusted net income tripled to $57.6 million, working out to $0.37 per share. Free cash flow more than doubled from year-ago levels, finishing at $62.8 million.

However, investors didn't seem as excited about Zscaler's guidance. The company projected sales for the fiscal third quarter to come in between $396 million and $398 million, which would represent only minimal sequential growth from the most recent quarter. Adjusted earnings of $0.39 per share would also be little changed from the previous period. Full-year guidance called for revenue of between $1.558 billion and $1.563 billion and adjusted earnings of $1.52 to $1.53 per share.

In addition, Zscaler said separately that it would cut its workforce by about 150 jobs, or 3%. That shows that the company shares concerns from across the industry about future prospects, and that in turn seemed to confirm a more bearish view for enterprise software companies even in vital areas like cybersecurity.

ChargePoint stock runs out of juice

Meanwhile, ChargePoint Holdings saw its stock slump 15% in after-hours trading. The electric vehicle charging network provider reported fiscal fourth-quarter results for the period ending Jan. 31 that fell short of expectations.

ChargePoint is still in growth mode, and its quarterly numbers showed the extent of that growth. Revenue jumped 93% to $153 million, with sales from its networked charging systems more than doubling year over year. ChargePoint did lose money, however, although adjusted losses narrowed by more than 20% to $45.5 million.

Less positively, ChargePoint issued guidance for the first quarter of the new fiscal year, and it suggested a dramatic slowdown in momentum. Projections included revenue guidance for between $122 million and $132 million, and while that would be 56% higher than what the company brought in during the first quarter of the previous fiscal year, it nevertheless would be a substantial sequential decline from the numbers the charging network provider just posted.

Investors in ChargePoint have hoped that initiatives from governments in the U.S. and Europe encouraging electric vehicle adoption would help bolster the company's business prospects. So far, though, that isn't resulting in the kind of financial results shareholders want to see, and that's putting a damper on enthusiasm within the industry.