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 Syneron Medical (ELOS), a global developer and marketer of aesthetic medical products, jumped as much as 12% after the company reported market-topping third-quarter earnings results.
So what: For the quarter, Syneron delivered a revenue increase of 4% to $62.7 million, helped most by its emerging business units segment that, though much smaller than its professional aesthetic device segment, delivered 17% year-over-year growth. Although Syneron's gross margin actually dipped 220 basis points to 53.1% from the year-ago period it still managed to expand its EPS to $0.04 from $0.03. By comparison, Wall Street was anticipating just a breakeven quarter in terms of EPS on $61.7 million in revenue.
Now what: With the exception of gyms and nutrition plan providers, let this earnings report serve as a reminder that you should never underestimate the drive of consumers to want to improve themselves aesthetically. Syneron's quarterly results also highlighted a pipeline update that looks filled with potentially new revenue growth drivers. Syneron certainly isn't cheap here at 22 times forward earnings, and it does have a fairly erratic history when it comes to earnings reports in terms of beats and misses, but I'd say it's definitely worth an add to your watchlist moving forward.
