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 technical service company Furmanite (NYSE: FRM) dropped as much as 13.5% today after the company reported earnings. At the close of trading, shares had recovered to just a 4.8% decline on the day.
So what: Third-quarter revenue was up 32% from a year ago to $99.5 million and net income swung from a loss to a profit of $2.1 million, or $0.06 per share. The only analyst covering the stock expected $96.0 million in revenue and earnings of $0.07 per share, so results are mixed versus those expectations.
Now what: Management did keep earnings guidance of $0.44 to $0.48 per share intact, so that's positive for investors. I think the sell-off definitely got ahead of itself because Furmanite is just starting to see operational improvements put in place by management. There's clearly a lot of upside from expanding margins and, at 22 times the top end of this year's estimate, I think shares have upside as operations improve.
