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 Teradata (NYSE: TDC) briefly rose as much as 10% before settling in up 5% as of this writing. The cause? Earnings. Teradata easily bested the Street's fourth-quarter projections.

So what: Revenue rose 10% to $548 million. Non-GAAP profit rose 6% to $0.53 per share. Analysts were expecting $530 million and $0.50, respectively.

Now what: More importantly, the gains represent accelerating growth. In last year's Q4, Teradata upped its top line by less than 1%. A 10% boost is huge by comparison.

And Teradata expects even better times ahead. The midpoints of the company's 2011 forecasts (i.e., $2.19 billion in revenue, $2.15 in adjusted earnings per share) were ahead of analysts' average goalposts. Each figure also represents healthy double-digit growth.

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