Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of enterprise software designer Compuware (Nasdaq: CPWR) are soaring as high as 17.6% above last night's closing price, exploring brand-new multiyear highs in the process.

So what: Last night's earnings report was full of good news that helped Compuware beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines. Application development tools and related products for IBM (NYSE: IBM) mainframe systems saw strong contract renewals while non-mainframe application monitoring tools provided a nice growth boost.

Now what: With one foot in the traditional (some would say legacy) part of the IT sector and the other in more forward-looking technologies, Compuware provides a tasty blend of stability and growth. Still, Compuware's margins are thinner than those of close rivals IBM, BMC Software (NYSE: BMC), and CA Technologies (NYSE: CA), and that dilemma is not ameliorated by any convincing margin growth. There's a reason why The Fool owns shares of Big Blue but not of Compuware.

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