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 FARO Technologies (FARO 2.10%) rose 17% during intraday trading Thursday after the company handily beat expectations with its third-quarter earnings report.
So what: Quarterly sales rose 12.3%, to $68.2 million, which translated to an even more impressive 37.3% growth in net income, to $5 million, or $0.29 per share. By contrast, analysts were looking for earnings per share of just $0.21 on sales of $66.27 million.
Now what: CEO Jay Freeland weighed in: "Our strong third quarter revenue growth reflects improved market conditions, excellent sales execution and the positive effect of several new product launches. We continued to accelerate our R&D spending in the quarter and we successfully leveraged our cost base to generate a 38% increase in earnings."
All in all, it was definitely a solid quarter for FARO, which had missed expectations for both revenue and earnings per share in each of its past two quarters. That said, I think investors would be wise to note shares are currently trading for a premium at more than 41 times last year's earnings and nearly 32 times next year's estimates. Personally, I'd prefer to wait until FARO can prove this quarter's strong results are sustainable over the long run before I would consider stepping in.
