Winning lawsuits can drive your revenues higher, but it might not do the same for your stock price. Just ask aesthetic laser maker Palomar Medical Technologies (NASDAQ:PMTI). It's been challenging the entire industry with patent-infringement lawsuits -- and winning. Yet it's still seen its stock price drop by more than 15% since its earnings release late last week.
Revenues for the quarter were up 82%, on the strength of back royalty payments made after Palomar won patent lawsuits against competitors Cynosure (NASDAQ:CYNO), Cutera (NASDAQ:CUTR), and Laserscope, which was recently acquired by Iridex (NASDAQ:IRIX). These companies paid Palomar a cumulative $26.2 million. Without those gains, product revenues rose by just 39% from last year.
A 39% increase is a pretty significant achievement, but it's just not the 82% that the earnings statement makes it seem. And speaking of earnings, those were up nearly 300% on a GAAP basis -- but there's some math you need to do here, too.
Because of the huge influx of cash the company received, it employed prior-year net operating loss carry-forwards, thus enjoying $6.8 million in non-cash benefits from income taxes. Excluding those benefits, Palomar would have earned $7.9 million, or $0.39 per share, lagging analysts' expectations of $0.46 per share.
That's why the stock tumbled more than $4 per share the day after results were announced, and an additional $3 per share in the days afterwards. Palomar is a leading laser maker, but investors weren't seeing the business quite as laser-perfectly as they had before.
I don't think they're viewing the situation accurately. When you want to make a mark with a ruler, but you view the point from an angle, it's actually slightly offset from where you really want to it to be. That's called a parallax view. When you simply look at Palomar via its earnings release, and subtract all the bells and whistles that went with it, you're really getting a parallax view of the situation.
Palomar has two major product agreements in place with both Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) to develop home-use lasers.
In December, it received FDA clearance to sell a home-use hair-removal device, and it's moving on to the next phase of development with P&G's Gillette. Its agreement with J&J involves reducing or reshaping cellulite, reducing the appearance of skin aging, and reducing or preventing acne. Rather than having to go to a clinic or to doctors for these procedures, consumers will be able to perform them in the privacy of their own homes. For Palomar, these should be huge opportunities.
Looking at the lawsuit results alone, and comparing them to analyst projections, skews your view of the situation. The potential of those consumer product agreements -- admittedly, in the future -- will be driving growth for Palomar. I'd consider the sell-off in the stock way overdone.
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Fool contributor Rich Duprey does not own any of the stocks mentioned in this article. You can see his holdings here. Gillette was a former Motley Fool Inside Value pick. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
